intact in these patients (Park et al., 2010). A recent study of tobacco and food craving found that decreases in craving correlated with decreases in ventral striatum activation and increases in dlPFC activation, with ventral striatal activation fully mediating the relationship between lateral prefrontal cortex and self-reported craving (Kober et al., 2010). This suggests that craving can be controlled cognitively via the effects of prefrontal control systems on the ventral striatum, and implies a top-down control process. Further, it has been postulated that processing of alcohol cues shifts from ventral to dorsal striatum during the transition from goal-directed (reward driven, “wanting”) to habitual and compulsive alcohol use (Vollstadt-Klein et al., 2010). This is consistent with the incentive-sensitization model of addiction, whereby compulsive alcohol use is under control of the dorsal striatum (Everitt and Robbins, 2005). Based on these findings, the present study seeks to test ventral and dorsal striatal functional connectivity during alcohol cue processing.
