The medial frontal cortical regions where these differential responses to drink cues occurred are part of the mesocorticolimbic reward circuit. In particular, medial frontal cortex receives projections from both the VTA and nucleus accumbens (Chiba et al., 2001; Haber et al., 2006; Williams & Goldman-Rakic, 1998). Functional neuroimaging also suggests that BOLD responses in medial prefrontal cortex reflect the subjective value that subjects assign to food (Hare et al., 2009; Hare et al., 2008) and money (Kable & Glimcher, 2007; McClure et al., 2004). It is also a region that we (Bragulat et al., 2008) and others (Filbey et al., 2008; Myrick et al., 2008) find to respond to alcohol cues. In a subset of the sample reported here (Kareken et al., 2010), the [AO > ApCO] BOLD contrast in these frontal reward areas was greater in heavy drinkers with a family history of alcoholism, as compared to equally heavy drinkers without such a family history.
