• Lara A Ray, Kelly E Courtney, Kent E Hutchison, James Mackillop, Adriana Galvan, and Dara G Ghahremani.
• Department of Psychology , University of California, Los Angeles, California; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences , University of California, Los Angeles, California.
• Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. 2014 Jan 1; 38 (1): 78-89.

BackgroundEndogenous opioids and striatal dopamine have been implicated in cue-induced alcohol craving and have been hypothesized to play a role in goal-directed, as opposed to habitual, alcohol use. This initial study examines dorsal and ventral striatal functional connectivity during alcohol-cue processing as a function of the A118G single-nucleotide polymorphism of the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene.MethodsSeventeen individuals with alcohol dependence (6 females; 90% Caucasian; mean age = 29.4) underwent blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging, while performing an alcohol taste-cues task. Psychophysiological interaction analyses investigated associations of the OPRM1 genotype with ventral and dorsal striatum functional connectivity, using the ventral striatum and the caudate as the seed region, respectively.ResultsCompared to A-allele homozygotes, G-allele carriers of the OPRM1 gene showed (i) greater activation of the insula and orbitofrontal cortex and (ii) stronger negative fronto-striatal functional connectivity for both ventral and dorsal striatal seed regions during processing of alcohol versus water cues.ConclusionsThese preliminary findings suggest that, relative to A-allele homozygotes, G-allele carriers show unstable frontal regulation over reward and/or habit-driven inputs from the striatum resulting from greater reward sensitivity combined with limited self-control resources.Copyright © 2013 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

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