The seemingly mixed nature of these findings can be at least partially explained by results from a largely independent behavioral and psychometric literature which has suggested the existence of two major pathways of risk for problem drinking. The first is associated with behavioral disinhibition and positive emotion enhancement and the second with negative emotion relief and coping.26–28 The predominant pathway of risk for any individual may further differ as a function of biologically-based personality traits including neuroticism and extraversion.26, 29 Consistent with this notion, each pathway likely has a unique neural signature present before the development of AUD. However, no prior work has attempted to map these putative behavioral and psychological subtypes of AUD risk onto individual differences in the functioning of the neural circuits for threat and reward.
