Studies with laboratory animals may shed light on the biological mechanisms linking impulsive behaviors with alcohol consumption. Wilhelm & Mitchell (2008) compared delay discounting in ethanol-naive rats selectively bred for high or low alcohol consumption. High alcohol drinking rats discounted delayed and probabilistic rewards more steeply than low drinking counterparts. Similarly, Oberlin & Grahame (2009) reported that alcohol-naïve mice selected for alcohol preference exhibited steeper discounting than low-preferring mice. Wilhelm, Reeves, Phillips, & Mitchell (2007) examined delay discounting and responding in a go-no go task in short-term selected lines of mice bred to drink high or low amounts of 10% ethanol. Unlike the Oberlin & Grahame (2009) findings, they found no differences between groups in delay discounting. However, using a more circumscribed measure of inhibition, the high drinking mice did make more responses during the pre-cue period on the go-no go task. Thus, although the study found no differences in delay discounting, the mice bred for higher alcohol consumption had impaired response inhibition on at least one measure. Such response inhibition data are consistent with Logue, Swartz, & Wehner (1998),
