Figure 5.

Assessment of immediate early gene immunoreactivity for c-Fos and Arc following alcohol (0.8 g/kg) or water (mean±SEM). c-Fos IR was significantly increased following alcohol in medial prefrontal cortex - infralimbic (A), but not prelimbic (B). c-Fos IR was also increased following alcohol in the accumbens shell (C), but not the core (D) or the insular cortex (E). By contrast, c-Fos IR was significantly decreased following alcohol in dentate gyrus (F). Similar changes were observed in Arc IR with increases in medial prefrontal cortex – infralimbic (G) and accumbens shell (I), with prefrontal cortex – prelimbic (H), accumbens core (J), and insular cortex (K) not showing effects. Furthermore, similar to c-Fos, dentate gyrus showed decreases in Arc expression (L). (M) Atlas images depicting the quantified regions of interest. Letters correspond to the respective figure panel for that region. (N) Photomicrographs of representative DG sections. Symbols: Squares - males, Circles - females * p<0.05 alcohol different from water.