The VTA is a critical part of the brain reward system and has been implicated in mediating the rewarding actions of ethanol (Gatto et al, 1994; McBride et al., 1999; Rodd et al., 2004; Rodd-Henricks et al., 2000) and in regulating alcohol drinking (Hodge et al., 1993; Hwa et al., 2012; Rodd et al., 2010) and seeking (Hauser et al., 2011). Other studies indicated that chronic alcohol drinking or repeated local administration of ethanol increased the sensitivity of the VTA to the rewarding (Rodd et al. 2005a, b) and dopamine stimulating (Ding et al., 2009) effects of ethanol.
