The brains of those with AUD, as with other substance addiction disorders, are modified in such a way that their behavior is persistently biased towards drug seeking and consumption despite recurring negative consequences of such actions (Koob et al., 2016). Achieving a comprehensive understanding of the etiology of AUD is predicated on the development of data-driven conceptual frameworks that permit the mapping of symptomatology to neurobiological functioning. One such framework for brain functioning delineates top-down and bottom-up processes (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Rauss & Pourtois, 2013). Top-down processes mediate voluntary attentional deployment by goal-driven (re)orientation of sense organs towards planned targets in organism’s environment, for example, when an organism is searching for food or mates, while bottom-up brain networks mediate involuntary orienting reflexes to that “capture” attention to salient changes in an organism’s environment (Bowling et al., 2020). In the context of addiction, compulsive or impulsive alcohol-seeking behavior reflects top-down processes, while bottom-up processes mediate sensitivity to alcohol-associated cues (Arias et al., 2021; Camchong et al., 2013a; Camchong et al., 2013b; Cardenas et al., 2018; Fein et al., 2017).
