The selectively bred high alcohol-consuming rat lines meet many, and in some cases all, of the proposed criteria for an animal model of alcoholism. Many of the neurobehavioral and neurobiological phenotypes present in alcohol abusing or dependent individuals are also present in the high alcohol-consuming lines. However, in spite of similar selection criteria for the alcohol-drinking phenotypes, the correlated behavioral traits and neurochemical and gene expression profiles may differ among the rat lines, suggesting that the high alcohol-drinking phenotype can be mediated by disparate signaling pathways in the CNS. This variability in neurobehavioral and neurobiological responses could be an ideal platform for screening compounds targeting particular subpopulations of alcoholics. This is especially true when the neurobiological or neurobehavioral phenotypes of the target population overlap with those present in one or more of the high alcohol-drinking rat lines.
