Ethanol consumption and place-preference conditioning in the alcohol-preferring C57BL/6 mouse: Relationship with motor activity patterns

Ethanol place-preference conditioning (PC) was conducted in drug-naive and ethanol pre-exposed female and male C57BL/6J (C57) mice to assess whether e nvironmental cues can develop positive incentive value for ethanol-preferri ng animals when associated with administration of ethanol. After 12 days ep isodic access to free-choice ethanol and/or water self-administration, mice received eight ethanol injections (1.75 g/kg/ip) 5 min before placement in their nonpreferred PC chamber and eight saline injections paired with thei r preferred chamber. Control mice received eight saline injections (20 ml/k g) in both their preferred and nonpreferred chambers. Mice of both sexes de veloped strong ethanol PC. Correlational analysis indicated that the streng th of ethanol PC for mice with a prior ethanol drinking experience was inve rsely related to the amount of ethanol consumed regardless of gender. Furth ermore, depending on gender and previous ethanol drinking experience, ethan ol PC was differentially related to initial baseline motor activity, the in itial motor response to ethanol, or rapid change in the motor response to e thanol. Thus, a complicated relationship between neural systems that mediat e ethanol reward and motor activity may exist as suggested by current addic tion theory.