The locus of medial prefrontal activation from AO in the present study was highly similar to that in our previous study of alcoholic drink odors (Bragulat et al., 2008), as well as to studies of visually displayed food for which subjects bid money (Hare et al., 2008; Hare, Camerer, & Rangel, 2009), of the subjective value of monetary reward in a delayed discounting task (Kable & Glimcher, 2007), and of immediate monetary choice in another delayed discounting paradigm (McClure et al., 2004). Reward cue-related activation in these medial prefrontal areas also correlates with perceived stimulus “value” when selecting visually displayed food items (Hare, Camerer, & Rangel, 2009). The right medial prefrontal contrast between AO and ApCO was most pronounced in the HD-FHP under placebo, where it differentiated the HD-FHP from equivalently heavy drinking individuals without a family history of alcoholism. This finding suggests a possible effect of familial history in reward cue processing in these heavy drinking subjects, and builds upon reported alterations in the reward system using animal models of familial alcoholism. For example, a selectively bred alcohol preference
