Decreased neural activity in reward circuitry during personal reference in abstinent alcoholics--a fMRI study.

ABSTRACT: Two of the most striking features in alcoholism are the irresistible craving for alcohol and the proceeding neglect of other activities and pleasures that were formerly relevant. Craving has been investigated extensively and is commonly due to a dysfunctional reward system. The neural basis of the neglect of self-relevant interests, which can be described as altered personal reference, and its association to the reward system, however, remains unclear. Using fMRI, we investigated neural activity during a paradigm that tested for both reward and personal reference with regard to the same stimuli, i.e., alcoholic and nonalcoholic pictures, in healthy subjects and abstinent alcoholic patients. Alcoholic patients showed slightly reduced signal changes in the brain stem adjacent to ventral tegm

SUBMITTER: de Greck M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6870830 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature