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Alcohol and the Human Brain: a Systematic Review of Recent Functional Neuroimaging and Imaging Genetics Findings

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Abstract

New information from neuroimaging studies on alcohol use disorders (AUDs) is available which necessitates an update on our review on alcohol and the human brain published in 2010. Here, we provide an overview on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and imaging genetics studies published in the last 5 years. Our systematic search in PubMed yielded a total of 70 fMRI studies out of which 57 were finally considered. We have summarized the study results based on their main research focus as follows: studies on neural correlates of reward processing (alcohol cues (N = 17), non-drug cues (N = 3)), decision making (N = 2), attention (N = 5), impulsivity and cognitive control (N = 1), pharmacological effects/treatment responses (N = 13) and relapse prediction (N = 6). Neuroimaging genetics studies have mainly considered the impact of various functional polymorphisms on alcohol cue processing (N = 10). These results indicate that recent research on AUDs has concentrated on reward processing (mainly alcohol cue reactivity). Possible directions for future research are discussed.

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  1. Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Research Group on Pathological Gambling, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany

    Mira Fauth-Bühler

  2. Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany

    Falk Kiefer

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Correspondence to Mira Fauth-Bühler.

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Falk Kiefer and Mira Fauth-Bühler declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This project was funded by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 636, projects D6 and D7, and from the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), SysMedAlcoholism–eMEDS, grant ID 01ZX1311A and Research Network on Mental Disorders–AERIAL, grant ID 01EE1406C TP1, TP6 und TP7.

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Fauth-Bühler, M., Kiefer, F. Alcohol and the Human Brain: a Systematic Review of Recent Functional Neuroimaging and Imaging Genetics Findings. Curr Addict Rep 3, 109–124 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-016-0082-2

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