A noteworthy finding of sLORETA analysis in this study was that alcoholics, as compared to controls, showed significantly decreased current density in the ORP time frame at cingulate gyrus during each of the reward/outcome conditions. On the other hand, alcoholics demonstrated a significantly reduced negative ORN current density than controls at postcentral gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus. This finding is very much characteristic of the observation that alcoholics have a weaker and/or a dysfunctional activation in the cingulate cortex during the evaluative processing of monetary outcome, as evidenced by the decreased current density during the late processing of the ORP component. Further, alcoholics do show more activity during the early processing (of ORN component) associated with discrimination of outcomes at the sensory (postcentral area), motor (precentral area) and dorsolateral prefrontal (brodmann area 9) areas of the brain. This differential effect of possible “hyper-excitability” during early processing at primary sensory and motor areas and prefrontal areas on the one hand, and diminished response to outcome evaluation during the later processing at anterior as well as posterior cingulate gyrus on
