Neuroimaging of rodent and primate models of alcoholism: initial reports from the integrative neuroscience initiative on alcoholism.

Neuroimaging of animal models of alcoholism offers a unique path for translational research to the human condition. Animal models permit manipulation of variables that are uncontrollable in clinical, human investigation. This symposium, which took place at the annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 29th, 2004, presented initial findings based on neuroimaging studies from the two centers of the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Effects of alcohol exposure were assessed with in vitro glucose metabolic imaging of rat brain, in vitro receptor imaging of monkey brain, in vivo magnetic resonance imaging of monkey brain, and in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopic quantification of alcohol metabolism kinetics in rat brain.