divide into two 13.5 cm × 27 cm × 20 cm compartments. Light compartment was illuminated with 100 mA incandescent bulbs. Timing was initiated when animals entered the dark compartment and locomotor activity/position monitored for 10 minutes. Results were expressed as percent of time or locomotor activity in the light vs. dark. One week after anxiety testing, loss-of-righting reflex (LORR) assays were done by injecting mice i.p. with 3.8 g/kg of ethanol and hypnotic effects of ethanol were observed by inverting mice onto their backs in V-shaped troughs (Linsenbardt et al., 2009). For LORR testing, all animals were injected with ethanol (n=28 each for AAV-IRES and AAV-CLIC4). The duration of LORR was initiated when the animal lost the ability to right itself onto its paws and terminated when the animal recovered its righting reflex by righting itself three times in 30 seconds. Behavioral measurements were discarded when ethanol leaked from the injection site and/or the genital area or when the animal did not lose the righting reflex. Two animals each for AAV-IRES and AAV-CLIC4 groups was excluded for these reasons (final n=26 each). All animals were subjected to supervised randomization between each phase of the behavioral battery so that both
