Prairie voles, by their nature, stick with one mate for life and devotedly care for babies together. But given alcohol to drink, many become staggering drunkards prone to stepping out on their partners.
Sound familiar? The overlap with human tendencies makes the mouse-like rodent an ideal model to study the social aspects of excessive drinking, say researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
"They not only drink alcohol, they prefer it over water," says Allison Anacker, a neuroscience graduate student at OHSU. Taste tests show they prefer drinks with 6 percent alcohol – about the same as beer, notes Andrey Ryabinin, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at OHSU.
Lack of good animal models is a long-standing problem for researchers
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Either they will destroy themselves, or they will learn to brew beer and destroy us all.
