Emotions engage strong mental and affective states giving rise to intense feelings, both positive and negative. Emotions generally are considered to be separate from cognition, although it is recognized that emotions can directly influence various aspects of mental function, and vice versa (Cahill 2003). The brain contributes to emotional functioning in a coordinated fashion that involves multiple systems of the body (Keltner and Shiota 2003). The emotional changes accompanying long-term chronic alcoholism cover a broad spectrum. Some of these changes, eg, apathy and emotional flatness, are reminiscent of those seen in patients with bilateral frontal lobe damage (Lezak 1995; Moselhy et al 2001; Di Lazzaro et al 2004) or in patients with right-hemisphere damage (Kaplan 1988). Other abnormalities are subtle. For example, alcoholics may make atypical judgments regarding the nature of facial emotional expressions (Oscar-Berman et al 1990; Townshend and Duka 2003) or intonations of emotional utterances (Monot et al 1994; Wildgruber et al 2002; Gandour et al 2003). It also has been suggested that alcoholism may involve an underlying neurocognitive deficit in the capacity to comprehend emotional information (Loas
