Neurofeedback & Alcohol Dependence

During scanning patients will be exposed to picture stimuli (showing alcoholic drinks and life goals) projected on a screen behind the scanner and viewed through a mirror attached on the MRI head coil. In each session patients will be trained to down-regulate/up-regulate activation levels in brain areas that show reliable responses to the alcohol/life goals pictures in a 'localiser' scan. Self-regulation of these brain responses will then be guided by real-time feedback of alcohol/life goals-cue elicited activation, consisting of changes in the visible alcohol/life goals picture (decreasing size = successful down-regulation; increasing size = successful upregulation). Functional MRI data will be acquired in short blocks having a duration of 5-8 minutes.