The most consistently and frequently reported findings in alcoholics, based on functional and structural imaging techniques, have been abnormalities in frontal brain regions (for reviews, see Oscar-Berman and Hutner 1993; Pfefferbaum and Rosenbloom 1993). Frontal-system functions include planning, carrying out, and monitoring goal-directed and socially suitable behaviors. Compared with nonalcoholic control subjects, some alcoholics have shown significant reductions in cerebral blood flow in certain areas of the frontal regions as well as in other brain areas. In addition, greater blood flow reduction in frontal cortical areas has been associated with greater severity of alcoholism and poorer cognitive test performance. In other studies, alcoholics showed diminished metabolic functions in frontal areas; this reduction was associated with impaired neuropsychological functions.
