The dorsal striatum has an important role in mediating goal-directed and habitual behavior and these functions are thought to reside within the caudate and putamen, respectively (Balleine et al., 2007). The caudate may, therefore, participate in e.g., goal-directed alcohol seeking whereas the putamen in the development of habitual alcohol use (Balleine and O'Doherty, 2010; Chen et al., 2011). Our results show that in the normal brain, 11 glutamate, and 5 GABA-A receptor genes were expressed at a significantly higher level in the caudate than in the putamen. Furthermore, in the brain tissue from alcoholics there were changes in the caudate but not the putamen in both the glutamate and GABA-A receptor mRNA levels. In the caudate, mRNA encoding one NMDA (GluN2A) and three GABA-A (δ, ε, ρ2) receptor subunits were down-regulated and one GABA-A subunit (γ1) was up-regulated. In agreement with other studies on human post-mortem samples (Lewohl et al., 1997, 2001; Dodd and Lewohl, 1998; Buckley et al., 2000, 2006; Mayfield et al., 2002; Buckley and Dodd, 2004; Dodd et al., 2004; Flatscher-Bader et al., 2005, 2006; Kalsi et
