observed in alcoholic patients who relapsed. Additionally, Pitel et al. (2012a) tested abstinent alcoholics on a face-name learning and recognition-memory task during an fMRI scan. At rest, fMRI activation patterns in the left hippocampal and cerebellar regions were positively synchronized in controls, but negatively synchronized in the alcoholics. During initial learning of the task, the alcoholics did not differ from controls on measures of performance, but the alcoholic group had lower cerebellar activation. During memory-task engagement, both groups exhibited hippocampal-cerebellar fMRI desynchronization. The authors speculated that because there were no significant group differences in recognition-memory performance, the alcoholics’ modulated hippocampal-cerebellar activity was compensatory.
