Therefore, the current findings of higher RD in the 6 WM regions and lower AD in left external capsule (WM03) of AUD participants (Table 2, Figure 5) suggest that lower WM integrity may be interpreted as a result of demyelination in six regions. Lower WM in the left external capsule (WM03) may also be explained as a result of lower axonal density or its loss. Zorlu et al. (2014) reported higher AD and RD values but no differences in FA between AUD and control groups, indicating that these metrics provide additional information. Lower WM integrity may also suggest relatively lower levels of brain activation during cognitive processing due to tardy signal processing in the brains of individuals with AUD that perhaps reflects in their subpar performance on various cognitive and behavioral tasks. Accordingly, there is ample evidence showing relatively lower overall task-related cortical activation (for a review see Pandey et al., 2012a), longer reaction-time (Pandey et al., 2015, Pandey et al., 2012b, Smith et al., 2014), and longer event-related potential (ERP) peak latencies (Porjesz et al., 1987, Schuckit et al.,
