A large body of data collected over the past 15 years has demonstrated that the EC system is intricately involved in the function of reward neurocircuitry for both natural reinforcers like food (as reviewed by Fattore et al., 2010) and drugs of abuse (for review see Serrano and Parsons, 2011; Solinas et al., 2007). It is beyond the scope of the present review to exhaustively discuss the data implicating the EC system in all reward processes, so the following sections will be focused on an in depth review of the literature concerning EC’s and the reinforcing properties of ethanol (table 2). Along these lines, evidence spanning multiple domains including behavioral, biochemical, genetic, and physiological data will be discussed.
