Adolescent alcohol consumption alters sex-specific behaviors associated with prefrontal functional connectivity in mice

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the last brain regions to fully mature, making it particularly sensitive to stress and drug use early in life. Both human and rodent studies find long-lasting behavioral changes after adolescent alcohol exposure that implicate underlying disruptions in PFC development, including structural abnormalities and altered brain functional connectivity. Few rodent studies have been conducted to understand the network-level implications of these disruptions. We assessed how adolescent binge-like alcohol consumption in a drinking in the dark (DID) model affected adult aversion-resistant alcohol consumption, exploration, and brain-wide functional connectivity in mice. Approximately one month after the conclusion of DID, only female mice exposed to alcohol during adolescence exhibited aversion-resistant alcohol preference in adulthood. Adult females exhibited additional sex-specific changes in exploratory behavior in the elevated plus maze after adolescent alcohol consumption. Resting state neuroimaging revealed changes in prefrontal cortical connections with sensory motor, hippocampal, striatal, and other networks, providing insights into the putative systems underlying deficits caused by adolescent alcohol exposure. Critically, our data corroborate a growing body of literature in human and rodent studies demonstrating that adolescent alcohol use may increase risk for adult alcohol use more strongly in females. Finally, we identify neural correlates of this effect that include both known and novel networks and tie these back to human datasets, allowing biological and mechanistic targets to be further explored for future study and interventions.