the dorsal PFC (including the dACC, DLPFC and inferior frontal gyrus) has been predominantly implicated in top-down control and meta-cognitive functions, the ventromedial PFC (including subgenual ACC and mOFC) in emotion regulation (including conditioning and assigning incentive salience to drugs and drug-related cues), and the ventrolateral PFC and lateral OFC in automatic response tendencies and impulsivity (TABLE 1). Dysfunction of these PFC regions may contribute to the development of craving, compulsive use and ‘denial’ of illness and the need for treatment — characteristic symptoms of drug addiction. This PFC dysfunction may in some instances precede drug use and confer vulnerability for developing substance use disorders (BOX 3). Irrespective of the direction of causality, the results of the neuroimaging studies that are reviewed here suggest the possibility that specific biomarkers could be targeted for intervention purposes. For example, perhaps these PFC abnormalities could be used to identify the children and adolescents who would benefit most from intensive drug abuse prevention efforts, and perhaps medications can ameliorate these deficits and help addicted individuals to engage in rehabilitation treatment.
