The mesopallidal, mesoaccumbens, and nigrostriatal dopamine systems are very responsive to acute ethanol administration (Budygin, Phillips et al. 2001, Robinson, Volz et al. 2005, Robinson, Howard et al. 2009), more sensitive than the nigropallidal dopamine system. Indeed, the brain regions with greatest increases in ethanol-induced dopamine release are the VP, NAc, and DS, but not the GP (Melendez, Rodd-Henricks et al. 2003). As described in the previous section of this review, ethanol acts acutely on multiple targets within the VTA/SN to increase the firing of dopamine neurons. The dopaminergic neurotransmission in ventral and dorsal striatum differentially modulates the behavioral response to ethanol and mediate different aspects of its reinforcing properties (see below) but there is also evidence that they act in concert to mediate the different responses to ethanol.
