Gene expression profiling studies demonstrate clearly that alcohol consumption changes brain region-specific transcriptional profiles in human alcoholics and animal models of voluntary consumption [40]. We recently reported time-dependent changes in mRNA expression in mice exposed to chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure (a model of alcohol dependence). It is well established that miRNAs can alter the expression of many target genes and a number of studies have shown that miRNA expression is altered in response to alcohol abuse in humans [10–13] and in animal models [7, 9, 14–17]. Rodent drinking models have been important in identifying alcohol-responsive miRNAs and their functional relevance based on responses to expression manipulation. Alcohol-induced changes in microRNAs are associated with cellular tolerance to alcohol [41], antianxiety effects [42], cellular reward mechanisms [20], regulation of alcohol consumption and preference [16, 17, 20, 21], episodes of binge drinking [7, 14, 43], dependence/withdrawal [9, 15, 17] and alcohol-induced conditioned-place preference [21]. However, these studies report expression changes that are occurring at a single point in time after alcohol treatment and thus, do not capture dynamic transcriptional regulation. The temporal
