title: Habitual alcohol seeking: modeling the transition from casual drinking to addiction.
abstract: The transition from goal-directed actions to habitual ethanol seeking models the development of addictive behavior that characterizes alcohol use disorders. The progression to habitual ethanol-seeking behavior occurs more rapidly than for natural rewards, suggesting that ethanol may act on habit circuit to drive the loss of behavioral flexibility. This review will highlight recent research that has focused on the formation and expression of habitual ethanol seeking, and the commonalities and distinctions between ethanol and natural reward-seeking habits, with the goal of highlighting important, understudied research areas that we believe will lead toward the development of novel treatment and prevention strategies for uncontrolled drinking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, Ribicoff Labs, New Haven, CT, USA; Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Jacqueline M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: jane.taylor@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Jane R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D058999:Drug-Seeking Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012201:Reward
keywords: Addiction; Alcohol; Goal-directed behavior; Habit; Prefrontal cortex; Striatum