The acute and chronic effects of ethanol on microcircuits can help reveal changes in local control of synapses that alter the output of key brain regions. As the majority of synapses in microcircuits are GABAergic, this research has focused mostly on changes in the effects of GABA. Some of the ethanol-induced changes in interneuron function and synaptic transmission were mentioned earlier in this review, and we will now focus on recent data from striatum and cerebellum.
