ABSTRACT
Major advances in biomedical research often accompany technical innovations, and this has certainly been the case with alcohol research. Some of the more fruitful advances in alcohol research have been driven by the interdisciplinary nature of the
approaches used to tackle the critical neuroscience questions in the field. Numerous examples of this synergy between seemingly unrelated approaches exist, but the driving force behind the techniques of this chapter is the convergence between neurochemical and behavioral techniques. Although incredible advances have been made in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ethanol, the study of how these molecular and cellular changes affect behavior is not as advanced. A firm understanding of the mechanisms that underlie ethanol-related behavior requires a combination of behavioral analysis along with
in vivo
measurements of cellular or chemical activity in the brain. To this end, microdialysis has been extensively used in the past 15 years to monitor neurochemical activity in the conscious, freely moving animal.
