nor did we measure potential group differences in nutrition, exercise and genetic predispositions. All these conditions may also influence brain morphometry and should ideally be considered in future studies of both treatment-naïve and treatment-seeking individuals with well-defined dependence on alcohol and illicit substances. To address the issue of regional specificity of volume changes within the relatively large lobes and to increase the functional relevance of such measures, reliable segmentation and examination of small brain regions or of the cortical ribbon may be needed, such as provided by whole-brain voxel-based morphometry and cortical thickness measures (see e.g., Cardenas et al., 2011, Durazzo et al. 2011, Ersche et al. 2011).
