Attentional set shifting in HAP3, LAP3, and cHAP mice is unaffected by either genetic differences in alcohol preference or an alcohol drinking history.

Alcohol consumption may precede, or result from, behavioral inflexibility and contribute to individuals' difficulties ceasing drinking. Attentional set shifting tasks are an animal analog to a human behavioral flexibility task requiring recognition of a previous strategy as inappropriate, and the formation and maintenance of a novel strategy (Floresco, Block, & Tse, 2008). Abstinent individuals with alcohol use disorder, nonalcoholic individuals with a family history of alcoholism, and mice exposed to chronic-intermittent alcohol vapor show impaired behavioral flexibility (Gierski et al.

Innate and Acquired Quinine-Resistant Alcohol, but not Saccharin, Drinking in Crossed High-Alcohol-Preferring Mice.

Background: Alcohol consumption despite aversive consequences is often a key component of an alcoholism diagnosis. Free-choice alcohol consumption despite bitter quinine adulteration in rodents has been seen following several months of free-choice drinking, but there has been little study of whether prolonged access to other palatable substances such as saccharin yields quinine resistance. Selectively bred crossed high-alcohol-preferring (cHAP) mice average blood alcohol levels of over 250 mg/dl during free-choice access, considerably higher than other models.