WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, RAMA
There’s a new mouse in the game for alcoholism and addiction researchers. Developed by Nicholas Grahame, an associate professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and colleagues, the animals drink more alcohol than other rodent models, choose alcohol over other options, and binge drink—all of which makes for much drunker mice.
Previous mouse models of alcoholism would choose to drink water, even when alcohol was available. The only way to get them really drunk is to take the water away, or to directly administer the alcohol. The new mouse line, on the other hand, always chooses alcohol, just like human alcoholics, reaching blood-alcohol levels more than three times the equivalent of the human legal driving limit—approximately the level of severe human alcoholics.
“This line ...
