for males, ≥3 drinks for females) using an olfactory cues task (i.e., alcoholic drink odors vs. appetitive/non-appetitive control odors) in a placebo-controlled design in which alcohol/saline was delivered intravenously to a target breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of 0.05g/dl (9). The contrasts between alcohol and appetitive/non-appetitive odors after the alcohol priming condition revealed significant activation of the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal, medial frontal and precuneus/posterior cingulate regions; whereas no regions of significant activation were observed for these contrasts after the saline condition. When the authors compared the alcohol odors versus appetitive odors (and alcohol odors versus non-appetitive odors) contrasts after the alcohol priming and saline conditions directly, only greater activation of the posterior cingulate/retrosplenial region was observed for the alcohol priming condition (9). A larger study using alcohol taste cues focused on genetic moderators of neural cue-reactivity and found differing priming related results for the D4 dopamine receptor gene (DRD4) variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) and OPRM1 A118G genotypes (10). Specifically, DRD4 VNTR >7 repeat individuals showed greater blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal response to alcohol cues, versus control cues (i.e., litchi juice), in regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and striatum, as compared to individuals with <7 repeats,
