We have used a selectively bred rat model of alcoholism that voluntarily drinks large quantities of ethanol to study the effects of binge ethanol drinking on adolescent neurobiology. The alcohol-preferring P rats consume alcohol for its CNS pharmacologic effects rather than for calories and meet criteria proposed for an animal model of alcoholism (reviewed in (McBride, Rodd, Bell, Lumeng, & Li, 2014). Studies using these animals have revealed important information on behaviors, brain function and transcriptomes affected by drinking ethanol (R. L. Bell, Rodd, Engleman, Toalston, & McBride, 2014; McBride, Kimpel, et al., 2014; McBride, Rodd, et al., 2014; McClintick et al., 2015, 2016). We have previously studied the effects of repeated binge-like alcohol drinking during adolescence on the nucleus accumbens shell (Acbshell) and central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) (McBride, Kimpel, et al., 2014), the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) (McClintick et al., 2015), and the periaqueductal gray (PAG) (McClintick et al., 2016) of these animals. Given the decreases in volume of both hippocampus (De Bellis et al., 2000) and prefrontal cortex (De Bellis et al., 2005) after heavy alcohol
