INCREASED IMPULSIVITY AFTER INJECTED ALCOHOL PREDICTS LATER ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION IN RATS - EVIDENCE FOR LOSS-OF-CONTROL DRINKING AND MARKED INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

A delay-of-reward paradigm was used to assess impulsivity in rats. Pre vious research with this paradigm has found that normally occurring im pulsivity scores predict magnitude of voluntary alcohol intake. The au thors' primary findings were (a) injected alcohol produced a dose-depe ndent increase in impulsivity, (b) varying the intervals between alcoh ol and testing yielded orderly effects, (c) there were extreme individ ual differences in impulsive reactivity to alcohol, (d) these individu al differences did not reflect differences in alcohol pharmacokinetics , (e) subject selection procedures ensured that differences in impulsi ve reactivity to alcohol were independent of significant variations in baseline impulsivity scores, and (f) individual differences in impuls ive reactivity to injected alcohol strongly predicted magnitude of vol untary alcohol intake. The findings are discussed in terms of evidence for a dysfunctional alcohol-induced positive feedback loop (''loss-of -control drinking''), alcohol disinhibition, and the relationship betw een impulse control and the regulation of alcohol consumption.