The fundamental basis for the public health concern surrounding alcohol abuse and alcoholism is the excessive self-administration of alcohol and the adverse consequences of this abusive drinking. However, our understanding of the biological basis of risk factors for and neurobiological consequences of excessive self-administration of ethanol remain limited. Advances in our understanding the primary factors that establish, maintain, and are consequences of excessive alcohol self-administration are greatly enhanced by the use of appropriate animal models. A primary strength of this Center for the Neurobehavioral Study of Alcohol (CNSA) is in developing and utilizing animal models of alcohol abuse and alcoholism to identify neurobiological factors as targets for prevention, harm reduction or treatment strategies related to the course of alcoholism.
The Specific Aims are:
AIM 1 : To provide an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to study the risk for and neurobiological consequences of excessive ethanol self-administration.
AIM 2 : To provide a national resource for the dissemination of research findings and training in the area of the neurobehavioral analysis of excessive alcohol consumption resulting in alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
These aims will be addressed through the functions of an Administrative, Pilot and an Animal Core as well as six research projects. In the proposed studies of the CNSA we will study excessive ethanol self-administration in two animal models: (1) monkeys that drink ethanol excessively in the presence of a concurrent choice of water and (2) rats whose ethanol self-administration is induced and maintained under a schedule-induced polydipsia procedure. The projects are highly integrated and provide a multidisciplinary approach ranging from functional genomics (Project 1), to synaptic transmission (Projects 2 & 3), to functional and anatomical changes in brain circuitry (Projects 4 and 6), to assessing behavioral and physiological correlates (Project 5). We will disseminate this information through our educational efforts within the Administrative Core and in the larger alcohol research community that exists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
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