A study employing the Sternberg verbal working memory task reported similar levels of performance with respect to reaction time and accuracy in alcoholic and nonalcoholic subjects. In these same subjects, however, activations were greater in alcoholics than in controls in the left prefrontal cortex and the right superior cerebellum (Desmond et al., 2003). Another study revealed that the processing of redundant targets relative to a single target was associated with a significant BOLD response in bilateral extrastriate cortices in controls. By contrast, although alcoholics activated only the left extrastriate cortex, they also showed significant BOLD responses in the thalamus, pallidum, and left cerebellum (Schulte et al., 2010). These fMRI studies provide evidence for the role of the cerebellum in augmenting performance and compensating for the functional deficits attributable to frontal cortical disruption in alcoholics.
