Given the role of prefrontal regions in modulating responding in the VS and the pattern of group differences we observed in response of PFC regions, we focused on functional connectivity between the bilateral nucleus accumbens and the lateral OFC, mPFC, and DLPFC during the experience of winning money compared with losing money. The alcohol dependent group displayed stronger negative functional connectivity than the comparison group—that is, a stronger negative correlation in task-related function— between the nucleus accumbens and all 3 prefrontal ROIs tested (see Table 1; Figure 3). That is, the alcohol dependent group showed stronger associations than the comparison group between nucleus accumbens and prefrontal regions during the context of receiving reward vs. losing. Whole-brain analyses confirmed that these PFC regions exhibited negative functional connectivity with the bilateral accumbens. The groups did not differ for positive functional connectivity. There were no sex differences in functional connectivity.
