The consequences of heavy alcohol use on brain structure have been studied extensively using imaging modalities to repeatedly demonstrate negative impacts from chronic use. For example, overall decreases in brain volume have been found to covary with alcohol intake (Harding et al., 1996), theorized to result from the neurotoxic effects of alcohol (Lishman, 1990). The frontal lobe and limbic systems, basal forebrain, and cerebellum have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to alcoholism-related damage (Sullivan et al., 2000, Dirksen et al., 2006, Oscar-Berman et al., 1997, Kril et al., 1997, Pfefferbaum et al., 1997). These regions play key roles in cognitive processes including executive functioning (Sullivan and Pfefferbaum, 2005), as well as mediating and reinforcing appetitive drive hypothesized to influence the inability to control alcohol consumption (Everitt and Robbins, 2005).
