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Why We Like to Drink: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of the Rewarding and Anxiolytic Effects of Alcohol
Open accessAbstract
People typically drink alcohol to induce euphoria or reduce anxiety, and they frequently drink in social settings, yet the effect of alcohol on human brain circuits involved in reward and emotion has been explored only sparingly. We administered alcohol intravenously to social drinkers while brain response to visual threatening and nonthreatening facial stimuli was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Alcohol robustly activated striatal reward circuits while attenuating response to fearful stimuli in visual and limbic regions. Self-ratings of intoxication correlated with striatal activation, suggesting that activation in this area may contribute to subjective experience of pleasure and reward during intoxication. These results show that the acute pharmacological rewarding and anxiolytic effects of alcohol can be measured with fMRI.
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“Neuroimaging studies show that even a single dose of alcohol disrupts the regulation of emotional stimuli by attenuating activity in the amygdala during exposure to threatening faces (Gilman et al. 2008; Sripada et al. 2011; Gorka et al. 2013).”
From Decoding the bidirectional links between alcohol misuse and aggression: toward a unified translational framework (2026) · cites this paper as Gilman et al. 2008
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“The ventral striatum (VS) is central to reward processing (Knutson and Cooper 2005), and is activated by a range of rewarding stimuli including drugs of abuse (Gilman et al. 2008).”
From Effects of MDMA on sociability and neural response to social threat and social reward (2009) · cites this paper as Gilman et al. 2008
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gilman, J. M., Ramchandani, V. A., Davis, M. B., Bjork, J. M., & Hommer, D. W.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2008-04-30
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 18
- Pages
- 4583-4591
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC2730732
- OpenAlex
- W2135192074
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (Z99‐AA999999)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Keywords
- alcohol, reward, anxiolytic effects, striatum, fear response, facial expressions, social drinkers, poisoning, limbic system, acute alcohol effects
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Alcoholic Intoxication, Alcohols, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reward, Anti-Anxiety Agents, Linear Models
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