The present data show that replicate lines of outbred selected high-alcohol drinking mouse lines are also more impulsive than low drinking lines. Evaluating the neural substrates that modulate choice behavior between small/immediate versus large/delayed may be important to understanding many different neuropsychiatric disorders (Boyle et al., 1992; Dervaux et al., 2001; Noordsy and Green, 2003), and especially the addiction disorders. Impulsive choice may be a more useful construct with which to study the inhibitory aspect of addiction than self-administration, as inhibitory processes are assessed independently of drug reward and in a drug-free state. The current data are consistent with viewing impulsivity as a trait predictive of alcoholism.
