BOLD signal response to alcohol taste cues (11) would change following a priming dose of alcohol (target BrAC=0.03g/dl) in a sample of non-treatment seeking alcohol dependent individuals. While the behavioral pharmacology literature suggests that alcohol priming would increase the desire to drink (i.e., increase subjective craving; 6, 12), it remains unclear whether greater brain activation indeed corresponds to greater desire for alcohol, as the findings on the relationship between subjective and objective measures of cue-induced craving are mixed (13, 14). In addition, none of the studies reviewed have tested priming effects among alcohol dependent individuals. As such, hypotheses concerning the direction of neural effects cannot be advanced, and instead, differences in the magnitude of whole-brain activation to alcohol versus control cues pre-post alcohol priming are examined. The priming dose of 0.03g/dl corresponds to approximately 1–2 standard drinks, allowing evaluation of how individuals respond to cues at low levels of subjective intoxication and when making decisions that may extend their drinking episode into heavier, possibly binge, levels. Thus, elucidating how neural responses to cues as well as subjective craving change after a priming dose has a unique set of implications for translational science of alcoholism and may be especially informative about
