Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural AnalysisShikun Hou 1, Nathaly M. Arce Soto 1, Elizabeth J. Glover 1
1Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics, Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois Chicago
This protocol describes a standard intermittent-access two-bottle choice home cage drinking paradigm to model alcohol consumption in rats. In addition, it provides step-by-step instructions to augment the standard protocol with a DIY lick detection system that enables microstructural analysis of drinking behavior.