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Differentiating Heavy from Light Drinkers by Neural Responses to Visual Alcohol Cues and Other Motivational Stimuli
Open accessAbstract
The course to alcohol dependence often starts with a preclinical period of heavy drinking. The present article reports functional magnetic resonance imaging data showing that even this pattern of alcohol consumption is associated with maladaptive neural responses to alcohol and other stimuli. When participants were confronted with visual cues related to alcohol, heavy drinkers showed amplified blood oxygen level-dependent signal responses in specific emotional areas (insular cortex) and in parts of the brain's reward circuitry (ventral striatum). This neuronal amplification was not present in light drinkers. Crucially, at the same time heavy drinkers showed reduced responses in frontal areas to pictures related to higher order life goals and in the cingulate cortex to appetitive food stimuli, suggesting that they have difficulty finding alternative, socially desirable goals. Using discriminant function analysis, we demonstrate that the combination of alcohol-related overactivation and underactivation to alternative goals allows heavy and light drinkers to be differentiated with a high degree of precision. Our findings highlight the diagnostic value of functional brain mapping of cue reactivity. Imaging measures may help to identify addictive dispositions in preclinical stages and to clarify the mechanisms that underlie the development and maintenance of alcohol dependence.
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“Heavy alcohol drinkers had an increased BOLD fMRI signal in response to alcohol cues in the insula (it was significant in the left insula and a trend in the right) and the ventral striatum compared to light drinkers.”
From The Insula: A Brain Stimulation Target for the Treatment of Addiction (2019) · cites this paper as Ihssen et al., 2011
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ihssen, N., Cox, W. M., Wiggett, A., Fadardi, J. S., & Linden, D. E. J.
- Affiliations
- Bangor University (GB)
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-11-02
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1408-1415
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2118964880
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 5.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- 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
- heavy drinking, alcoholism, alcohol cue reactivity, insula, ventral striatum, reward systems, frontal cortex, cingulate cortex, food cues, goal-directed behavior
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Alcohols, Analysis of Variance, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cues, Emotions, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motivation, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Young Adult
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