Contrary to results from the study by Bragulat et al. (9), the present study revealed a general decrease in BOLD response to alcohol taste cues following alcohol priming in an alcohol dependent sample. The brain regions exhibiting significant decreases in activation post-priming included the hippocampus, amygdala, inferior frontal gyrus, temporal regions, and occipital areas, and this effect was more pronounced when controlling for alcoholism severity. Exploratory analyses revealed higher alcoholism severity is associated with greater reductions in alcohol cue-elicited frontal activation following priming, suggesting the observed post-priming decreases in activation of these regions may be driven by the nature of our alcohol dependent sample. In other words, hazardous drinkers may be less likely to show this pattern of decreased activation to the extent to which there is a linear relationship between alcohol use severity and decreased neural response to alcohol cues after alcohol priming.
