The major finding of this study was that chronic, continuous/daily ethanol drinking under 24-hr free-choice conditions (CA) altered the expression of over 370 uniquely named genes in the ACB of P rats, whereas intermittent ethanol drinking, using a multiple scheduled access protocol (MSA), with three 1-hr sessions each day for 5 days per week did not produce a significant number of gene expression differences. These results do not support our hypothesis that binge-like alcohol-drinking would produce significant changes in gene expression in the ACB of P rats. The disparity in findings could be due to the higher daily intakes of the CA group (∼9.5 g/kg/day) versus the MSA group (∼6.5 g/kg/day). However, the MSA group consumed their ethanol in distinct bouts of 1.7—2.7 g/kg/hr with most of the intake expected to occur within the first 15 min of each access session (Bell et al., 2006b), mimicking binge-like drinking, with BACs approximating 80 mg% or greater (Bell et al., 2006b, 2008). The relative lack of effect of ethanol in the MSA group versus the W group suggests that gene expression in
