Table Of ContentMETHODS & NEW FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
Series Editors
Sidney A. Simon, Ph.D.
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D.
Published Titles
Apoptosis in Neurobiology
Yusuf A. Hannun, M.D., Professor/Biomedical Research and Department Chairman/
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina
Rose-Mary Boustany, M.D., tenured Associate Professor/Pediatrics and Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
Methods for Neural Ensemble Recordings
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., Professor/Department of Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
Methods of Behavioral Analysis in Neuroscience
Jerry J. Buccafusco, Ph.D., Professor/Pharmacology and Toxicology,
Professor/Psychiatry and Health Behavior, Medical College of Georgia
Neural Prostheses for Restoration of Sensory and Motor Function
John K. Chapin, Ph.D., Department of Physiology, State University of New York
Health Science Center
Karen A. Moxon, Ph.D., Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Drexel University
Computational Neuroscience: Realistic Modeling for Experimentalists
Eric DeSchutter, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine, University of Antwerp
Methods in Pain Research
Lawrence Kruger, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus/Neurobiology, UCLA School of Medicine
Motor Neurobiology of the Spinal Cord
Timothy C. Cope, Ph.D., Department of Physiology, Emory University School of Medicine
Nicotinic Receptors in the Nervous System
Edward Levin, Ph.D., Associate Professor/Department of Pharmacology and Molecular
Cancer Biology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
Duke University School of Medicine
Methods in Genomic Neuroscience
Helmin R. Chin, Ph.D., NIMH, NIH Genetics Research
Steven O. Moldin, Ph.D, NIMH, NIH Genetics Research
Methods in Chemosensory Research
Sidney A. Simon, Ph.D., Professor/Department of Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., Professor/Department of Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
The Somatosensory System: Deciphering the Brain’s Own Body Image,
Randall Nelson, Ph.D., Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology,
University of Tennessee College of Medicine
New Concepts in Cerebral Ischemia
Rick Lin, Ph.D., Professor/Department of Anatomy, University of Mississippi
Medical Center
DNA Arrays: Technologies and Experimental Strategies
Elena Grigorenko, Associate Professor/Department of Physiology and Pharmacology,
Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Methods in alcohol-related neuroscience research / [edited by] Yuan Liu, David M. Lovinger
p. cm. (Methods & new frontiers in neuroscience)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8493-0203-X (alk. paper)
1. Alcohol--Physiological effect--Research--Methodology. 2.
Brain--Pathophysiology--Research--Methodology. 3. Alcoholism--Molecular
aspects--Research--Methodology. I. Liu, Yuan, Ph.D. II. Lovinger, David M. (David
Michael), 1959- III. Methods & new frontiers in neuroscience series.
[DNLM: 1. Alcohol-Induced Disorders, Nervous System--physiopathology. 2.
Neurology--methods. 3. Research--methods. WL 140 M592 2002]
QP801.A3 M45 2002
616.86′1‘0072—dc21 2001052454
CIP
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material
is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use.
Direct all inquiries to CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation, without intent to infringe.
Visit the CRC Press Web site at www.crcpress.com
U.S. Government work Feb. 2002
International Standard Book Number 0-8493-0203-X
Library of Congress Card Number 20021052454
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Printed on acid-free paper
The opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the
policy or official opinions of the NIAAA, NIH or any other agency of the Federal Government.
©2002 CRC Press LLC
0347_frame_FM Page 15 Friday, January 4, 2002 2:46 PM
About the Editors
Yuan Liu, Ph.D. was born in the People’s Republic of China. During the decade
of “Cultural Revolution” all formal education was banned in China, so her middle-
and high-school education was self-taught after work (she was assigned as a factory
worker) in a dark cellar room that she shared with her mother for 10 years. In 1978,
when the revolution finally ended, she passed the national college entrance exami-
nation and earned acceptance into Peking University, where she received both Bach-
elor’s and Master’s degrees in neurophysiology. Her two theses were on neural
mechanisms of mammalian hibernation. In 1985, she joined Dr. John G. Nicholls’
laboratory in the Biozentrum, Universität Basel, Switzerland, where she explored
biophysical properties of presynaptic Ca++ channels, distribution of postsynaptic
transmitter receptors and cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic regeneration, and
received her Ph.D. in 1989. She was awarded the Grass Fellowship to spend the
summer of 1988 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole to learn optical
recording techniques. Dr. Liu then took postdoctoral training at SUNY at Stony
Brook studying function and structure relationships of postsynaptic receptors using
single-channel patch-clamp recording techniques. In 1991, she joined the intramural
research program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where her main research
focus was on synaptic transmission, plasticity and regeneration.
In 1995, Dr. Liu became the program director for Basic Neuroscience Research
at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), where she
organized four satellite symposia in conjunction with the Society for Neuroscience
Annual Meetings on alcohol-related topics including: Approaches for Studying
Neural Circuits — Application to Alcohol Research (1996); The “Drunken” Synapse
— Studies of Alcohol-Related Disorders (1997); Applications of Gene Knockout
Techniques to Alcohol Research (1998); The Cerebellum and Alcohol: Roles in
Cognitive and Motor Functions (1999). She edited the proceedings of the 1996
symposium, which was published in The Journal of Alcoholism: Clinical and Exper-
imental Research (1998), and co-edited with Dr. Walter A. Hunt The “Drunken
Synapse” Studies of Alcohol-Related Disorders, which was published in 1999. She
also co-organized a workshop with Dr. Mike Eckardt from the NIAAA on Compu-
tational Neurobiology Approaches and Alcohol Research. In recognition of her
development of an outstanding neuroscience portfolio in alcohol research, Dr. Liu
received the NIH Director’s Award in 1999.
Since 1999, Dr. Yuan Liu has served as the program director for Channels, Syn-
apses, and Circuits at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
(NINDS). Her program focuses on basic and translational research in channels, syn-
apses, and neural circuits that are responsible for normal and abnormal brain functions.
She is the NINDS representative to several trans-NIH and intra-governmental agency
committees related to computational neuroscience and neuroinformatics.
0347_frame_FM Page 16 Friday, January 4, 2002 2:46 PM
David M. Lovinger, Ph.D. grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and received his B.A. degree
from the University of Arizona in 1981, where his studies focused on biopsychology.
Encouraged by his strong interest in the neurobiological basis of learning and
memory, he entered the graduate program in Neurobiology and Behavior in the
Psychology Department at Northwestern University. Under the tutelage of Dr. Aryeh
Routtenberg, Dr. Lovinger focused on understanding the role of protein phosphory-
lation in hippocampal synaptic plasticity, with an emphasis on the role of protein
kinase C. His dissertation was entitled Regulation of the Maintenance of Hippoc-
ampal Long-Term Potentiation by Protein Kinase C and Protein F1. He received his
Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1987, and then entered the laboratory of Dr. Forest F.
Weight at NIAAA for postdoctoral training. The focus of his research expanded to
include investigation of ion channel pharmacology and examination of alcohol
effects on ligand-gated ion channels. His postdoctoral work included characterization
of alcohol effects on glutamate-gated ion channels, serotonin-gated ion channels and
glutamatergic synaptic transmission. Dr. Lovinger moved to Vanderbilt University
as an assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics in 1991. His work
since that time has focused on the molecular basis of alcohol actions on ligand-gated
ion channels, as well as on the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in
synaptic transmission and plasticity in the basal ganglia. He has risen through the
academic ranks to become full professor of molecular physiology and biophysics,
pharmacology, and anesthesiology. Dr. Lovinger has been the recipient of several
honors and awards, including The Research Society on Alcoholism Young Investi-
gators Award for 1992, and a MERIT award from NIAAA in the year 2000. He
previously co-edited a volume entitled Presynaptic Receptors in the Mammalian
Brain along with the late Dr. Thomas V. Dunwiddie. Dr. Lovinger will assume
leadership of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience in the NIAAA intramural
research program in the autumn of 2001.
0347_frame_FM Page 17 Friday, January 4, 2002 2:46 PM
Contributors
Elfar Adalsteinsson, Ph.D. Gregg E. Homanics, Ph.D.
Department of Radiology Department of Anesthesiology
Stanford University School of Medicine University of Pittsburgh
Stanford, CA Pittsburgh, PA
Michael J. Beckstead Patricia H. Janak, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology and Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research
Pharmacology Center
Wake Forest University School of
Department of Neurology
Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Winston-Salem, NC
Emeryville, CA
John Crowley, Ph.D.
Terry L. Jernigan, Ph.D.
Department of Neurobiology
Laboratory of Cognitive Imaging
University of Massachusetts Medical
University of California, San Diego
School
Worcester, MA La Jolla, CA
T. Michael Gill, Ph.D. Yuan Liu, Ph.D.
Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research National Institute of Neurological
Center Disorders and Stroke
Department of Neurology National Institutes of Health
University of California, San Francisco Bethesda, MD
Emeryville, CA
Gregory F. Lopreato, Ph.D.
Bennet Givens, Ph.D. Waggoner Center for Alcohol and
Department of Psychology Addiction Research
Ohio State University University of Texas at Austin
Columbus, OH Austin, TX
Rueben A. Gonzales, Ph.D. David M. Lovinger, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology Department of Molecular Physiology
College of Pharmacy and Biophysics
University of Texas Vanderbilt University
Austin, TX Nashville, TN
Description:Neuroscience research in alcohol-related disorders has made remarkable progress in the last two decades. The advances are due, in great part, to the large array of powerful biomedical, bioengineering, and computational biological techniques that are now employed. To date, there has not been a compre
