Thus, low-concentration alcohol exposure appears to have enhanced the contrast between responses to alcohol’s conditioned cues and cues unassociated with alcohol in regions of the mesocorticolimbic pathway, at least in these hazardous drinkers. Where this effect was observed (as apparent from Fig. 5B), it was often a decrease in the NApO rather than an increase in AO (except in the precuneus and posterior cingulate/retrosplenial regions, where AO increased and NApO decreased). Such drug-related effects on the sensory properties of reward may be important to alcohol seeking. For example, Bäckström and Hyytiä (2006) found that alcohol priming significantly enhanced cue-reinstated responding for alcohol, which mirrors human data showing that low-dose alcohol exposure increases desire to drink in both social drinkers and alcoholic subjects (De Wit, 1996, 2000; De Wit and Chutuape, 1993).
