fMRI is an imaging technique that detects local fluctuations in blood flow, blood volume, and oxygenation to examine brain activity, often in response to cognitive tasks or stimuli. Previous fMRI studies have shown that brain areas in the salience network, such as the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), or regions associated with reward processing, including ventral striatum, medial and dorsolateral PFC (mPFC and dlPFC, respectively), amygdala, and OFC, are activated by alcohol-related cues in heavy drinkers and in individuals with AUD (Heinz et al., 2009; D. Seo et al., 2011; Wrase et al., 2007). Further, the taste of alcohol alone can elicit increases in blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) PFC activity in drinkers, a response that positively correlates with drinking behavior (r=0.4, p=0.02) and alcohol craving (r=.33, p=0.05) (Filbey et al., 2008). However, because SG differences are understudied, findings of sex-dependent effects on neural responses in AUD samples are not consistent between studies. We summarize below the scant literature examining SG differences in functional activity in response to alcohol-related stimuli in subclinical (i.e., moderate to heavy drinkers not yet diagnosed with AUD) and AUD populations.
