Models of alcohol drinking in rodents are useful in determining factors underlying uncontrolled alcohol abuse. Here we describe a new model, which overcomes a limitation of previous approaches, the necessity of studying animals in isolation. Over the course of 4–5 weeks group-housed mice intermittently received free or instrumental access to 12% alcohol in the IntelliCage system. Animals developed stable alcohol preference which was similar across 6 cohorts tested (46.6 ± 12.8%). Compared to behaviors of singlehoused mice, we found no escalation of drinking over time, and no difference in alcohol preference between males and females, but comparable levels of alcohol preference to those previously reported. Motivation to obtain alcohol or saccharin measured under a progressive ratio schedule was initially similar, but the breakpoint decreased over consecutive sessions in case of alcohol (from 19.8 to 15.9). Conversely, addition of 0.03% quinine had a smaller impact on alcohol than saccharine intake (72.2% vs. 97.2% decrease). We observed that sequences of animal entries to alcohol-containing corners diverged from random distribution. Thus, this model applied to group-housed mice induces stable levels of alcohol drinking and allows to measure its motivational aspects as well as explore relations between social structure and drinking behavior.
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