[Behavioral and neuropharmacologic mechanisms regulating the ingestion of alcohol]

The study of motivational processes of the self-stimulation behavior involves the catecholaminergic systems (dopaminergic and noradrenergic). The same systems seem to be implicated in alcohol consumption. We thus hypothesize that the neural substrates underlying the reinforcement induced by the direct electrical excitation of these zones could be the same substrates aimed at by alcohol: alcohol would thus induce a potent pharmacological reinforcement.