Multisensory Environments to Measure Craving During Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

There are limited functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that measure alcohol craving with multisensory environments. Researchers are faced with a two-fold challenge: to recreate a naturalistic environment during an MRI scan and to produce paradigms that mimic real-life conditions involved with craving. Craving is a multifaceted psychological construct and techniques such as fMRI provide an alternative way to measure craving and to have a better understanding of its complexity. Most studies to date have implemented visual stimuli to measure craving and only a few studies have investigated gustation and olfaction. Moving forward, there needs to be greater attention on the ways in which we measure craving and the use of multisensory environments during fMRI. By going beyond examining subjective craving responses, and investigating neurobiological responses such as brain activity during fMRI, can potentially lead to better treatments for alcohol use disorder. Further, there needs to be additional consideration on standardizing how we measure craving, which will allow for a more unified approach amongst researchers.