title: The role of social stimuli content in neuroimaging studies investigating alcohol cue-reactivity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cue-reactivity is thought to play a fundamental role in the maintenance of addiction. The incentive sensitization theory proposes that conditioned responses are related to increased sensitivity of the reward-related dopaminergic pathways in the brain. However, neuroimaging studies on alcohol cue-reactivity show inconsistent results.
  
  
  METHODS
  Stimuli content of 26 alcohol cue-reactivity studies was systematically reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No differences were found between alcoholic beverage stimuli and non-alcoholic beverage stimuli in human display and brand factors; however, alcoholic beverage stimuli were more likely to display social interaction compared to non-alcoholic beverage stimuli.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given that processing of social information activates brain areas that partly overlap with reward-related brain areas associated with cue-reactivity, such differences between conditions can introduce noise in the findings. We therefore suggest matching stimuli sets on the reviewed factors carefully to improve reliability of neuroimaging studies investigating alcohol-related cue-reactivity.
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: m.groefsema@bsi.ru.nl.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groefsema
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Trimbos Institute (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction), Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rutger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Engels
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maartje
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luijten
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Alcohol cue-reactivity; Neuroimaging; Social stimuli content