The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 65 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“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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Citations
Cites
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“The VS, particularly the NAcc, is critical in the reward system of the brain (Robinson and Berridge, 1993; Koob and Nestler, 1997; Everitt and Wolf, 2002), and lesions in this brain region decrease the rewarding effects of many drugs of abuse (Di Chiara, 2000).”
BackgroundActual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000
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“Behind only tobacco use and obesity, alcohol use is the third most common lifestyle-related cause of death in the United States (Mokdad et al., 2004).”
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“Emotional facial expressions activated higher-order visual areas related to emotion, including lingual and superior temporal gyri as well as the affective division of the anterior cingulate, as has been previously reported in studies exploring the effects of emotional stimuli on brain activation (Devinsky et al., 1995…”
ResultAnticipation of Increasing Monetary Reward Selectively Recruits Nucleus Accumbens
Knutson, B., Adams, C. M., Fong, G. W., & Hommer, D. (2001) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.21-16-j0002.2001 · Cited by 2,244 · cited 2×
“Where might alcohol recruit circuitry that regulates positive affect leading to euphoria? A critical area of interest is the ventral striatum (VS), which is recruited by reward-predictive stimuli (Knutson et al., 2001; Bjork et al., 2004).”
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“Emotional facial expressions activated higher-order visual areas related to emotion, including lingual and superior temporal gyri as well as the affective division of the anterior cingulate, as has been previously reported in studies exploring the effects of emotional stimuli on brain activation (Devinsky et al., 1995…”
ResultHow brains beware: neural mechanisms of emotional attention
Vuilleumier, P. (2005) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.10.011 · Cited by 2,162 · cited 3×
“This result is consistent with previous findings that recruitment of these regions is enhanced by emotionally valenced visual stimuli (Vuilleumier, 2005).”
ResultDrugs of abuse: anatomy, pharmacology and function of reward pathways
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Background
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Neural correlates of food addiction
Gearhardt, A. N. (2011) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.32 · Cited by 707
Gambling near-misses enhance motivation to gamble and recruit win-related brain circuitry
Clark, L., Lawrence, A. J., Astley-Jones, F., & Gray, N. (2009) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.12.031 · Cited by 410
“…al., 2000; Elliott et al., 2000; Knutson et al., 2003), as well as primary rewards (e.g., fruit juice) (Berns et al., 2001; McClure et al., 2003), social rewards (acquisition of good reputation; Izuma et al., 2008), and drugs of abuse (Breiter et al., 1997; Gilman et al., 2008; Stein et al., 1998).”
BackgroundImpact of Physical Exercise on Substance Use Disorders: A Meta-Analysis
Wang, D., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Li, R., & Zhou, C. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110728 · Cited by 340
“Alcohol takes effect through promoting the reaction of the GABAA receptor [72] and increasing stimulation to the dopamine and opiate receptor [73,74].”
BackgroundDisrupted Ventromedial Prefrontal Function, Alcohol Craving, and Subsequent Relapse Risk
Seo, D., Lacadie, C., Tuit, K. L., Hong, K., Constable, R. T., & Sinha, R. (2013) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.762 · Cited by 316
A genetic determinant of the striatal dopamine response to alcohol in men
Ramchandani, V. A., Umhau, J. C., Pavón, F. J., Ruiz-Velasco, V., Margas, W., Sun, H., Damadzic, R., Eskay, R. L., Schoor, M., Thorsell, A., et al. (2010) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2010.56 · Cited by 298
Self-citation
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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