The Animal Models Core of the Alcohol Research Center-The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI-ARC) aimshas developed and will continue to refine new animal models of alcoholism to provide a framework for testingthe overall hypotheses in the TSRI-ARC and the Center at Large. New directions in animal models coreinclude a separation of excessive drinking into two domains: binge drinking, which will be defined byexcessive ethanol intake associated with access to a sweet solution under limited access at the beginning ofthe dark cycle (Self-administered binge drinking-SABD) and withdrawal-induced drinking which will bedefined as excessive ethanol consumption during acute and protracted withdrawal after dependenceinduction (Chronic ethanol induced drinking- CEID). Efforts will be particularly centered on broadening thesemodels to the framework of allostasis, and to the factors of age, gender, and genetic vulnerability. Forexample, superimposed on these models will be developmental exposure which will include adolescent andadult exposure where excessive drinking during adolescence can serve as both a dependent variable(relative sensitivity of adolescent rats to excessive drinking) and as an independent variable (effects ofadolescent exposure on subsequent binge and dependence drinking). In addition to further developing andproviding guidelines for animal the animal models, the core will also provide alcohol vapor exposure,measurement of blood alcohol levels, and vaginal smears to the research components of our TSRI-ARC andthe Center at Large
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