Acute alcohol triggers rank-specific social ascent through a prefrontal-accumbens circuit in male mice.

Alcohol is known to alter social behavior, yet how it acts on the brain to produce specific, rank-dependent changes in social competition remains unknown. Here we show in male mice that a low dose of alcohol induces a rapid, transient, and highly selective upward shift in social hierarchy: it promotes dominance behavior exclusively in mid-ranking animals, enabling them to stably outcompete their immediate superior. Critically, this effect was absent in both dominant and the lowest-ranking subordinates, demonstrating a precise social-context gating of alcohol's action. This rank-specific effect is also absent in females. Using cFos mapping and chemogenetic manipulations, we identify CaMKIIα-expressing glutamatergic neurons in the prelimbic prefrontal cortex (PL) as both necessary and sufficient for this alcohol-driven social ascent. Anatomical and functional analyses reveal that alcohol selectively recruits the PL→nucleus accumbens (NAc) pathway, and projection-specific inhibition of this circuit abolishes the behavioral effect. These findings delineate a social rank-gated prefrontal-accumbal circuit that mediates the selective pro-dominance action of alcohol, providing a mechanistic basis for how a globally acting drug can produce precise, context-dependent changes in social structure.