Repeated Ethanol Exposure and Withdrawal Impairs Human Fear Conditioning and Depresses Long-Term Potentiation in Rat Amygdala and Hippocampus

Binge-like drinking impairs fear conditioning, reduces LTP, and results in inappropriate generalization of learned fear responses. We propose a mechanism whereby RWD-induced synaptic plasticity reduces capacity for future learning, while allowing unconditioned stimuli access to neuronal pathways underlying conditioned fear.