Aberrant decision making is both a risk factor for, and the result of, an alcohol use disorder (AUD; Verdejo-Garcia et al., 2018). Therefore, understanding the neural systems that underlie decision making, and how altered function of these systems influences decisions about drinking alcohol, is critical to identify novel targets to treat and prevent AUDs. While several neural systems have been implicated in decision making, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a critical role in setting goals (Buschman and Miller, 2014) and forming intentions to achieve them (Haynes et al., 2007; Brass et al., 2013; Fuster and Bressler, 2015). Thus, the inability to refrain from excessive drinking may reflect pathology in neural circuits that guide goal-directed actions such as mPFC (Fuster and Bressler, 2015).
