Differential Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Social Drinkers to Alcohol Cues: Relationship to Craving
Abstract
Using fMRI, our group previously found that after a sip of alcohol and exposure to alcohol beverage pictures, alcoholics compared to social drinkers had increased differential brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus. This study extends this earlier work with several improvements including imaging the entire brain (rather than the anterior half previously) and recording craving, while the subjects viewed images within the scanner. In a Philips 1.5 T MRI scanner, 10 nontreatment-seeking alcoholics and 10 age-matched healthy social drinkers were given a sip of alcohol before viewing a 12 min randomized presentation of pictures of alcoholic beverages, nonalcoholic beverages, and two different visual control tasks. During picture presentation, changes in regional brain activity were measured in 15 transverse T2(*)-weighted blood oxygen level dependent slices. Subjects rated their urge to drink after each picture sequence. After a sip of alcohol, while viewing alcohol cues compared to viewing other beverage cues, the alcoholics, but not social drinkers, reported higher craving ratings and had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior limbic regions. Brain activity in the left nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, and left orbitofrontal cortex significantly correlated with subjective craving ratings in alcohol subjects but not in control subjects. This study suggests, as did our earlier study, that alcoholics and not social drinkers, when expose…
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In alcoholics, activation in the NAc, anterior cingulate, and left orbitofrontal cortex in response to alcohol images predicts cravings.
“Myrick and colleagues [146] reported that activation in the NAc, anterior cingulate, and left orbitofrontal cortex in response to alcohol images predicted cravings in alcoholics.”
From Reward circuitry dysfunction in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes: animal models and clinical findings (2012) · cites this paper as [146]
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- Authors
- Myrick, H., Anton, R. F., Li, X., Henderson, S., Drobes, D., Voronin, K., & George, M. S.
- Affiliations
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- Corresponding author
- Myrick, Hugh
- Venue
- Neuropsychopharmacology
- Published
- 2003-12-12
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 393-402
- ISSN
- 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
- 1740-634X
- OpenAlex
- W2076432816
- Cited by
- 521
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 7.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA 10761, K23 AA00314, P50 AA 10761, K23AA000314, 2 P50 AA10761-03, P50AA010761)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- alcoholism, alcohol craving, alcohol cues, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, limbic system, social drinkers, brain activity
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Alcoholic Beverages, Alcoholism, Analysis of Variance, Beverages, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cues, Demography, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Photic Stimulation, Rest, Social Behavior, Time Factors, Case-Control Studies
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