In addition to these studies with outbred rats, a variety of rodent models have been developed through selective breeding to generate animals with a high propensity for ethanol self-administration and dependence. These animals may better mimic the drinking patterns of human alcoholics and provide an opportunity to investigate how genetic, structural, and functional differences in individuals may predispose them to alcohol dependence. For example, the alcohol-preferring P rat consumes high amounts of alcohol naturally unlike outbred strains that require time-consuming behavioral training sessions to overcome their initial resistance to alcohol consumption. P rats show a higher level of glucose utilization in PFC than non-alcohol-preferring rats in a drug-naive state (Smith et al., 2001). In response to an acute EtOH challenge, P rats show a divergent response with low doses increasing PFC glucose utilization, and higher doses producing a decrease. Alcohol non-preferring rats, on the other hand, showed no change to the acute ethanol challenge (Strother et al., 2005), indicating that enhanced sensitivity to ethanol in PFC may play a role in the development of alcohol dependence.
