Figure 1. Male and female mice exhibit a robust conditioned taste aversion to a 2 g/kg dose of ethanol.

(A) Experimental design. Mice received bilateral intra-basolateral amygdala (BLA) injections of a retrograde AAV construct allowing for expression of fluorescent tdTomato in cells projecting from the anterior insula (IC) to the BLA prior to ethanol-CTA. (B) A representative image of tdTomato expression indicating that viral expression was largely confined to the IC and present throughout the intralaminar extent. (C) Both male and female mice receiving a 2 g/kg i.p. injection of ethanol drank significantly less saccharin during retrieval compared to saline-conditioned controls (****p < 0.0001 main effect of ethanol, data expressed as % change from conditioning).