National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 2 articles published in JoVE Behavior The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans Bethany L. Stangl1, Nia D. Byrd1, Soundarya Soundararajan1, Martin H. Plawecki2, Sean O’Connor2,3, Vijay A. Ramchandani1 1Human Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, NIAAA, 2Dept. of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, 3R.L. Roudebush VA Medical Center This study aims to show that the Progressive-Ratio Computer-assisted Alcohol-Infusion System (CAIS) paradigm is a reliable and sensitive method that can be used to examine the motivating properties associated with alcohol self-administration in humans. Medicine Psychophysical Tracking Method to Assess Taste Detection Thresholds in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: The Taste Detection Threshold (TDT) Test Paule V. Joseph1, Julie A. Mennella2, Beverly J. Cowart2, M. Yanina Pepino3 1National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism, 2Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Psychophysical tools measure the functionality of the taste system for both research and health assessment purposes. This paper describes a method to measure taste detection thresholds that can determine the lowest concentration of sucrose, sodium chloride, or monosodium glutamate that can be tasted by individuals as young as 6 years.
