The present studies investigated the effects of withdrawal from a single binge-like dose of ethanol (hangover) on fear conditioning in male and female Sprague Dawley rats. In Experiment 1, males and females were given 0 or 3.5 g/kg ethanol intraperitoneally (i.p.) and then conditioned to contextual fear 24 h post injection. Withdrawal from acute ethanol enhanced expression of the conditioned freezing response in males, but not in females. Experiment 2 demonstrated that in males, withdrawal from acute ethanol administered 24 h prior to conditioning enhanced contextual fear conditioning, but not auditory-cued fear conditioning. In Experiment 3, male and female rats were given 3.5 g/kg ethanol, and blood ethanol concentrations (BECs) were assessed at various time points for determination of ethanol clearance. Female rats cleared ethanol at a higher rate than males, with 10 h required for females and 14 for males to eliminate ethanol from their systems. Because females cleared ethanol faster than males, in Experiment 4, females were conditioned 18 h after ethanol administration to keep the interval between ethanol clearance and fear conditioning similar to that of males. Withdrawal from acute ethanol given 18 h prior to conditioning did not affect both contextual and auditory-cued fear conditioning in females. In summary, these results highlight sex differences in the impact of withdrawal from acute ethanol (hangover) on fear learning; suggesting that males are more sensitive to hangover-associated enhancement of negative affect than females.

目前的研究调查了雄性和雌性斯普拉道利大鼠从单次暴食样剂量的乙醇戒断（宿醉）对恐惧调节的影响。在实验 1 中，雄性和雌性腹腔注射 (ip) 0 或 3.5 g/kg 乙醇，然后在注射后 24 小时形成情境恐惧。戒断急性乙醇会增强雄性条件性冰冻反应的表达，但不会增强雌性。实验2证明，在男性中，在条件反射前24小时戒断急性乙醇会增强情境恐惧条件反射，但不会增强听觉提示的恐惧条件反射。在实验3中，雄性和雌性大鼠被给予3.5g/kg乙醇，并在不同时间点评估血液乙醇浓度(BEC)以确定乙醇清除率。雌性大鼠清除乙醇的速度高于雄性，雌性大鼠需要 10 小时，雄性大鼠需要 14 小时才能从系统中消除乙醇。由于女性比男性更快地清除乙醇，因此在实验4中，女性在乙醇给药18小时后进行条件反射，以保持乙醇清除和恐惧条件反射之间的间隔与男性相似。条件反射前 18 小时戒断急性乙醇不会影响女性的情境恐惧条件反射和听觉提示的恐惧条件反射。总之，这些结果凸显了急性乙醇戒断（宿醉）对恐惧学习影响的性别差异。这表明男性比女性对宿醉相关的负面情绪增强更敏感。