the high correlation between the length of chronic alcohol use and age, we are unable to determine the independent effects of these variables in this study. And despite the correlation we report between LECN and disorder severity, the effect size is moderate. Other factors, likely genetic and environmental, are undoubtedly contributing to subjects’ alcohol problems. Finally, it is possible that the ALC subjects in our study may have had preexisting differences in functional connectivity that contributed to vulnerability to their disorder rather than the lower network strengths being the consequences of chronic use. Longitudinal imaging studies, as well as studies of at-risk populations, are needed to further investigate this possibility.
