The Effect of Positive and Negative Emotions on Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Nonalcoholics

This study was designed to learn more about the areas of the brain involved in the experience of positive and negative emotions. Patients who would like to participate in this study will first undergo a screening process to see if they will be eligible for the study. Patients eligible to participate in the study will go through two sessions. During session one, researchers will attempt to evoke positive and negative emotions by showing patients slides of different emotion-arousing stimuli (pictures of pleasant and unpleasant scenes). While patients are viewing these slides, researchers will be measuring patient's heart rate, sweating, and eye-blinking. During session two, patients will undergo an MRI of the brain while seeing similar emotion-arousing pictures as in session one. In addition, patients may be asked to play a simple computer game for a reward of money while researchers use the MRI to measure brain activity. Researchers hope to develop methods to evoke positive and negative emotions and simultaneously (at the same time) see brain activation in normal volunteers, alcoholics, and recovered alcoholics.\