mPFC. Together, these findings suggest that function in frontostriatal reward circuitry is altered in alcohol dependence, with less response in key PFC regions, disrupted coordination between frontal regions and VS in response to non-alcohol rewards, and associations between drinking characteristics and these frontostriatal alterations. These findings could indicate that alcohol dependence develops through weakened prefrontal regulation of striatal responding, which corresponds to difficulty with behavioral regulation. Because we focused on frontostriatal functional connectivity during winning relative to losing money, our results suggest that altered coordination of VS with mPFC occurs in response to reward rather than to feedback in general. Alternatively, altered coordination between these two reward regions could be weak during rewarding experiences but preserved or strong during loss or punishment experiences. The mechanisms of such weakened prefrontal regulation could include both heritable factors and pattern of exposure to alcohol.
