Figure 5.

Effect of social isolation on extracellular dopamine concentration in the mPFC during anticipation and consumption of ethanol after a voluntary ethanol intake protocol (A) and amount of ethanol consumed during the microdialysis experiment by SI and GH animals (B). Animals have been trained to voluntary consume ethanol from 11:00 to 13:00 every day for 3 weeks. During this time the ethanol containing solution was made accessible to the animals, and microdialysis samples were collected from the mPFC before, during, and after ethanol presentation. The amount of ethanol consumed during the experiment was calculated at the end of the experiment as difference between the weight of the bottles before and after the consumption session and is expressed as Mean ± SEM of 20 rats per group. Data are expressed as a percentage of basal values and are Mean ± SEM of at least 5 rats per group. ^ap < 0.05, ^a’p < 0.01 vs. basal values; ^bp < 0.05, ^b’p < 0.01 vs. corresponding GH value.