Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides assessment of the utilization of blood oxygen (i.e., the blood oxygen-level dependent [BOLD] effect) measureable during performance of specific cognitive, sensory, or motor tasks. Several fMRI studies reveal that alcoholics activate either a different neural network (Pfefferbaum et al., 2001; Tapert et al., 2001; Tapert et al., 2004) or activate appropriate regions but more widely (Desmond et al., 2003; Parks et al., 2003) to perform behaviorally (e.g., in terms of accuracy or reaction time) on par with controls. For example, self-paced finger-tapping activated frontocerebellar networks in controls (e.g., anterior cingulate, anterior lobe and vermis of the cerebellum) but only the parietal precuneus in alcoholics (Parks et al., 2010). This finding suggests compensatory alterations of frontocerebellar circuits whereby alcoholics must recruit higher ordering planning regions such as the parietal lobe in order to perform equivalently to controls.
