In the past 10 years, there have been new studies on the effects of ethanol administration to non-human primates that have also investigated effects on GABAA receptor function and plasticity. Cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are a powerful model to study the effects of long-term ethanol exposure as they will freely self-administer intoxicating quantities of ethanol with drinking patterns that mimic human alcoholics (Grant et al. 2008b; Vivian et al. 2001). Long-term ethanol self-administration by cynomolgus macaques alters the pharmacological and functional properties of GABAA receptors by decreasing GABA potency, but not efficacy, in the basolateral amygdala neurons. These alterations are associated with decreased α2 and α3 subunit mRNA expression and with a trend for a decrease in α1 subunit mRNA expression. No significant effect of gender or significant interaction between gender and ethanol exposure is observed for any of the subunits examined. Furthermore, the mean expression levels for both the α2 and the α3 subunits were significantly correlated with the total amount of ethanol consumed (Floyd et al. 2004). In the same cohort of cynomolgus macaques, Hemby et al. (2006)
