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Altered Striatal Response During Effort-Based Valuation and Motivation in Alcohol-Dependent Individuals.

AIMS
To use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural circuitry behind effort-related valuation and motivation in a population of alcohol-dependent participants and healthy controls.


METHODS
Seventeen alcohol-dependent participants and a comparison group of 17 healthy control participants completed an effort-based motivation paradigm during an fMRI scan, in which they were required to exert effort at varying levels in order to earn a monetary reward.


RESULTS
We found that alcohol-dependent participants were less motivated during trials requiring high levels of effort. The whole-brain fMRI analysis revealed that alcohol-dependent participants displayed an increased blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal during low and unknown effort cues in the dorsal and ventral striatum compared with healthy controls.


CONCLUSION
These findings provide the first evidence that alcohol-dependent participants and healthy controls differ in their effort-based valuation and motivation processing. Alcohol-dependent participants displayed a hyperactive mesolimbic reward circuitry recruited by non-drug rewards, potentially reflecting a sensitization to reward in this patient population.