The actions of acute and chronic ethanol exposure on hippocampal physiology are well characterized. In general, the focus has been on how these actions influence hippocampal-based learning and memory (e.g. spatial learning) (Matthews and Silvers 2004). The hippocampus also contributes to context-dependent reinstatement of cocaine use (Ramirez, Bell et al. 2009, Lasseter, Xie et al. 2010), but it is unclear if it has a similar role with respect to ethanol reinstatement. The ventral hippocampus is implicated in the processing of emotional information, and it is this region that projects most heavily to the NAc as part of the limbic circuit (Dudman and Gerfen 2015). The input from the hippocampus to the limbic circuit can help to integrate spatial and emotional information with reward processing and pavlovian learning processes (Robbins, Ersche et al. 2008). There is a greater need to integrate the studies of ethanol actions in hippocampus within the larger context of limbic circuit function, perhaps through examination of connections with other regions in the circuit.
