When compared with healthy subjects, individuals reporting chronic alcohol abuse demonstrate structural abnormalities, including reduced frontal cortical volume (60–64), compromised white matter integrity (65–67), reduced quantities of frontal–cerebellar connections (68), and aberrant patterns of frontal cortical activity (69, 70). Further, Kril et al. (71) confirmed previously reported reductions in PFC white matter and found a significant reduction in the number of neurons in postmortem tissue of alcoholics when compared with healthy control subjects, confirming losses to cortical gray matter (60). Finally, it is possible that these pathological changes are underlying the diminished cognitive function often observed in human alcoholics.
