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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Heterogeneous Effects of Alcohol on Dopamine Release in the Striatum: A PET Study

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (OnlineEarly Articles).


A dopaminergic response to alcohol in humans has not been demonstrated consistently with positron emission tomography (PET). We hypothesized that the effect of alcohol on striatal dopamine (DA) release may be anatomically heterogeneous between subjects.


Our approach was to identify voxels that exhibited alcohol-induced DA responses within the striatum, and to determine the relationships between DA responses and alcohol-related behavior.

Data from the striatal ΔBP maps nevertheless showed that the anatomic extent and magnitude of alcohol-induced DA release in the striatum are correlated with subjective responses to alcohol.

The heterogeneity of dopaminergic responses to alcohol across subjects may be a reason for the lack of reports demonstrating DA involvement in alcohol-related behaviors. By allowing for different spatial patterns of DA release within each subject's striata, we showed correlations between alcohol-induced DA release in the striata and behavioral outcomes related to alcohol.

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REQUEST REPRINT E-MAIL: kkyoder@iupui.edu

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