Until recently, little has been known about how people with lower and higher LR differ on neuronal activity with and without alcohol. A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined the relationship between LR status and neural activation during a visual working memory (VWM) task in the absence of a beverage challenge [17]. Using the retrospective Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) questionnaire to determine LR, despite similar task performance subjects with lower LRs had greater blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses to the task, which remained significant after controlling for demography and recent alcohol consumption. Two subsequent studies with two new samples, one with 60 subjects and the other a pilot study with 10 subjects, following both placebo and alcohol corroborated both the similar task performance across LR matched groups and the greater BOLD response contrast to high working memory demands after placebo for those with low LR [18, 19]. Here, alcohol (~0.70 ml/kg) either greatly diminished or reversed the LR group differences seen after placebo. The pattern of neural effects was consistent with the cognitive demands of the visual working memory task (e.g., in the right frontal gyri, cingulate, and parietal lobe).
