Oral ethanol self-administration in rats: models of alcohol-seeking behavior.

While various methods have been used to initiate ethanol drinking in animals, the development of models in which animals will perform some specific behavior in order to obtain the opportunity to drink ethanol has been fraught with difficulty. In the past several years, new procedures have been developed in which rats, neither food nor fluid deprived, will perform an operant task reinforced by the presentation of ethanol. This paper reviews some of these recent findings and presents new data concerning these models of oral ethanol self-administration as measured in an operant paradigm.