a common etiology, pathophysiology, biological markers and brain circuitry. In this regard, these models may be complementary to each other in explaining different dimensions of the spectrum rather than assumed being competitive. As a final note, it should be mentioned that genetic vulnerability underlies these spectrum disorders including alcoholism, as both models illustrate (Blum et al., 1996; Porjesz and Begleiter, 1998; Comings and Blum, 2000; Hicks et al., 2004, 2007; Begleiter and Porjesz, 2006; Porjesz and Rangaswamy, 2007; Dick et al., 2008; Rangaswamy and Porjesz, 2008a, 2008b), as many of these markers and dysfunctions related to these disorders are also present in their naïve offspring (Begleiter et al., 1984; Porjesz and Begleiter, 1997, 1998; Polich et al., 1994), and these specific dysfunctions in reward processing could be mainly due to certain inherited aspects of abnormal emotional traits in alcoholics (Oscar-Berman and Bowirrat, 2005).
