Figure 1. Experimental timeline of drinking in the dark task.

A) NAc core neurons were targeted for chemogenetic manipulation. In Experiment 1 all neurons were inhibited. In Experiment 2 all neurons were excited. In Experiments 3 and 4 D₁^CRE+ or D₂^CRE+ neurons were selectively inhibited. B) For all experiments, mice were presented with bottles of 15% EtOH and water in the home cage and consumption was measured over a 2-h period for 12 sessions. Quinine (100 μM) was added to the EtOH bottle starting on session 13. VEH and CNO injections were administered 10 min before the start of sessions 13 and 15. A subset of animals in Experiments 1 and 2 and all animals in Experiments 3 and 4 also received a CNO injection on session 11, to assess the effects of chemogenetic manipulations on baseline EtOH drinking.