Our early work showed preadolescent rats (PND 25) had increased NAcc DA levels following acute or repeated ethanol injections (1.0 g/kg/ip) relative to saline injected controls with repeated ethanol inducing a leftward shift in peak DA levels (Philpot and Kirstein, 1998). Therefore, ethanol-induced DA levels could be reliably obtained in the young rat. The ability of ethanol to induce DA associated expectancy effects was also measured. Preadolescent rats pretreated with ethanol but only given a saline injection during DA sampling exhibited increased NAcc DA levels as well (Philpot and Kirstein, 1998). These data suggest DA levels increased in anticipation or expectancy of ethanol administration.
