Ethanol also differentially affects the excitability of neurons that are not tonically active. For example, low-threshold spiking striatal interneurons show acute ethanol-induced hyperpolarization, but fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs) show a significant ethanol-induced membrane depolarization (Blomeley et al., 2011). Indeed, in vivo electrophysiological recordings show that acute ethanol increases the firing rate of FSIs in the NAc that may be related to the depolarization observed in vitro (Burkhardt and Adermark, 2014) (Figure 2I). In the central amygdala (CeA), acute ethanol can increase or decrease the firing of different neurons (Herman and Roberto, 2016) (Figure 2J).
