To investigate the personality traits that make individuals vulnerable to alcohol use and predispose them to develop AUD, we recruited 36 HCs and 35 patients with AUD from outpatients of Anhui Mental Health Center at Hefei Fourth People’s Hospital (data set 2), following the same inclusion criteria as data set 1 mentioned above. Overall, a total of n = 45 males with AUD were enrolled of whom n = 35 patients with complete behavioral assessments and fMRI data were included in current analyses (n = 3 patients had to be excluded due to fMRI artifacts; n = 5 patients had to be excluded due to they had been diagnosed with another mental disorder, three patients had anxiety disorders, one patient had mild depression and one patient had a history of epilepsy; n = 2 patients had a history of severe brain injury). HCs were recruited via posters and online advertisements, while the severity of alcohol dependence (measured by AUDIT and MAST scores) was assessed in data set 2. A smoking questionnaire (FTND) helped determine the amount and frequency of AUD
