et al., 2016a). A recent study using an optogenetic approach showed that activation of subpopulations of dynorphin neurons in the nucleus accumbens mediate aversion (ventral shell region) and reward (dorsal shell region) (Al-Hasani et al., 2015). It will be important to determine whether ethanol differentially alters activity of these neuronal subpopulations, thereby shifting the balance between reward and aversion behaviors.
