Chunk #36 — Examples of Specific Environments that Could be Modeled Across Species: Early Alcohol Exposures and the Peer Environment — The Peer Social Environment
The possibility that some of the most etiologically relevant of alcohol’s reinforcing effects are conditional upon social interaction, at least early in a drinker’s drinking career (e.g., during adolescence), is consistent with neuropharmacological views of alcohol (and other drugs of abuse affecting dopamine circuits; Berridge and Robinson, 1998) increasing the salience of natural incentives. There is direct evidence that interaction with familiar conspecifics is reinforcing in rats (Douglas, Varlinskaya, & Spear, 2004) and that ethanol facilitates social interactions (esp. in adolescents). Moreover, opiate antagonists block some aspects of social interaction (e.g., play fighting) implicating opioid mechanisms in this seemingly consilient ethanol effect (Varlinskaya, & Spear, 2009). Note, however, as drinking progresses to dependence in vulnerable individuals, it seems likely that the salience of the drug effect (independent of enhanced social reinforcement) increases, in effect, “hijacking” brain circuits for social and other natural reinforcers. Thus, the notion of alcohol’s rewarding properties being heightened in the context of social interaction is likely a function of stage of one’s drinking career as well as stage of development.
