Acute alcohol induces greater dose-dependent increase in the lateral cortical network functional connectivity in adult than adolescent rats

•This study examines the effect of acute alcohol on functional connectivity of default mode, salience, and lateral cortical networks in rats using a recently disseminated fMRI data acquisition protocol and analytical pipeline.•Acute alcohol increased intrinsic connectivity within the lateral cortical network and enhanced its inter-network connectivity in an age-dependent manner.•No effect of sex on the alcohol-induced change in connectivity was observed in this study.•A potential mechanism underlying alcohol-driven increase in resting state functional connectivity and age-dependent sensitivity to alcohol is discussed.