There was highly suggestive evidence that priming exposure to alcohol may also enhance the contrast between responses to alcohol-related odors and those of non-appetitive control odors in other areas known to be important in appetitive drive. In the largest available sample for both alcohol and placebo infusion conditions, the difference between AO and NApO was largest under alcohol in the NAc, and in medial frontal and orbitofrontal cortices, both of which project to the NAc/ventral striatum (Haber et al., 2006) and to the posterior cingulate/retrosplenial area (Kobayashi and Amaral, 2003, 2007). Activity in medial prefrontal cortex, in particular, correlates positively with subjective reward value (Kable and Glimcher, 2007), and reward receipt (Taylor et al., 2006). Similar effects were also present in comparing AO to ApCO, although in this case there were no differences in the NAc/olfactory tubercle area. Moreover, the effects were largely specific to AO, without significant differences between the two classes of control odors under either alcohol or placebo.
