Visual fixation in infants from 6 months to 2 years of age was examined for its fit to the theory of "attentional inertia." A children's movie ("Sesame Street" movie, "Follow that Bird") or an extended audiovisual stimulus (computer-generated patterns) was presented to 40 children for a minimum of 20 min while fixation was videotaped and heart rate (HR) was recorded. Consistent with attentional inertia theory, fixations toward the stimuli had a lognormal distribution, HR decreased over the course of a look, and HR returned to prestimulus levels immediately before look offset. Older children (18 months, 24 months) showed a distinction in the parameters describing the lognormal distribution for the "Sesame Street" movie and the audiovisual patterns, whereas younger children (6 months, 12 months) responded similarly to the two stimulus types. Fixation patterns of children in this age range suggest attention increases over the course of a look, and parameters consistent with attentional inertia theory differentially develop in this age range.

These data indicate that scheduling fluid intake produces high, stable EtOH consumption and BEC in male and female B6 and WSC mice.

Ethanol vapor inhalation appears to be a valid tool for the study of withdrawal-induced anxiety.

When isolated from their dams and littermates, rat pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations to elicit attention and retrieval from their dams. This study examined the effects of perinatal alcohol exposure on ultrasonic vocalizations and maternal-infant interactions. Alcohol was administered throughout gestation to the dams and during the early postnatal period to the pups. Control groups consisted of a nontreated control and an intubated, pair-fed control. Ultrasonic vocalizations were measured on postnatal day (PD) 5 under varying conditions of isolation. Maternal behaviors were examined on PD2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Maternal behaviors were not significantly affected by prior alcohol administration to either the dams or the pups. However, ethanol-exposed rat pups vocalized more on PD5 than controls regardless of condition. The heightened vocalization response of the ethanol-exposed pups might be an underlying factor in the persistent effects of perinatal ethanol exposure on social behavior.