Animals
Twenty-five two-month-old female Wistar rats (from our breeding colony at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany) were used for the experiments. This Wistar rat line was developed at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry in Munich (“Crl:WI(Han)” (RS:0001833)) and has been selectively bred at the Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim for a robust alcohol drinking and ADE phenotype for over 15 years. The choice of female rats for the study was based on their lower bodyweight in comparison to males, which allows them to fit into the bore of the scanner even at the age of more than 14 months. We have previously shown [