Background Cue reactivity, the enhanced sensitivity to conditioned cues, is associated with habitual and compulsive alcohol consumption. However, most previous studies in alcohol use disorder (AUD) compared brain activity between alcohol and neutral conditions, solely as cue-triggered neural reactivity. Objective This study aims to find the neural subprocesses during the processing of visual alcohol cues in AUD individuals, and how these neural patterns are predictive for relapse. Methods Using cue reactivity and rating tasks, we separately modelled the patterns decoding the processes of visual object recognition and reward appraisal of alcohol cues with representational similarity analysis, and compared the decoding involvements (ie, distance between neural responses and hypothesised decoding models) between AUD and healthy individuals. We further explored connectivity between the identified neural systems and the whole brain and predicted relapse within 6 months using decoding involvements of the neural patterns. Findings AUD individuals, compared with healthy individuals, showed higher involvement of motor-related brain regions in decoding visual features, and their reward, habit and executive networks were more engaged in appraising reward values. Connectivity analyses showed the involved neural systems were widely connected with higher cognitive networks during alcohol cue processing in AUD individuals, and decoding involvements of frontal eye fields and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could contribute to relapse prediction. Conclusions These findings provide insight into how AUD individuals differently decode alcohol cues compared with healthy participants, from the componential processes of visual object recognition and reward appraisal. Clinical implications The identified patterns are suggested as biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in AUD. Data are available on reasonable request.

中文翻译：

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解码功能磁共振成像酒精提示反应性及其与饮酒行为的关联

背景提示反应性，即对条件提示的敏感性增强，与习惯性和强迫性饮酒有关。然而，之前大多数关于酒精使用障碍（AUD）的研究都比较了酒精和中性条件下的大脑活动，仅作为提示触发的神经反应。目的 本研究旨在找出 AUD 个体处理视觉酒精线索过程中的神经子过程，以及这些神经模式如何预测复发。方法使用线索反应性和评级任务，通过表征相似性分析，分别对解码视觉对象识别和酒精线索奖励评估过程的模式进行建模，并比较 AUD 之间的解码参与度（即神经反应与假设解码模型之间的距离）和健康的个体。我们进一步探索了已识别的神经系统和整个大脑之间的连接性，并利用神经模式的解码参与预测了 6 个月内的复发。结果发现，与健康个体相比，AUD 个体在解码视觉特征时表现出与运动相关的大脑区域更多的参与，并且他们的奖励、习惯和执行网络更多地参与评估奖励值。连接性分析表明，在 AUD 个体的酒精提示处理过程中，所涉及的神经系统与高级认知网络广泛连接，并且解码额眼区和背外侧前额叶皮层的参与可能有助于预测复发。结论 这些发现从视觉对象识别和奖励评估的组成过程中深入了解了 AUD 个体与健康参与者相比如何以不同的方式解码酒精线索。临床意义 建议将已确定的模式作为 AUD 的生物标志物和潜在治疗靶点。可根据合理要求提供数据。