In addition to understanding the differences in BOLD signal in response to viewing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, we also studied the similarities in viewing the two sets of visual cues by performing a conjunction analysis. We observed an increase in BOLD signal in the FG, IFG, MFG, precuneus and the cerebellum that was common to viewing pictures of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Although the FG is mainly recognized as a human face recognition area, previous research indicated has that when perceptual experts (such as car experts or bird experts) view the pictures of relevant stimuli (i.e. cars or birds), there is an increase in activity in the FG43. This indicates that the FG is an area that can process visual cues that a person is conditioned towards. The IFG and MFG are areas responsible for semantic processing44. This could be associated with patients reading the names of the beverages inside the scanner. The cerebellum is involved in motor control, hand-eye coordination, and higher-order cognitive functions45. Impairment of cerebellar function has been shown in substance abuse and other disorders such as
