Human functional neuroimaging connectivity research in dependence.

Functional and effective connectivity are relatively new techniques in the analysis of functional neuroimaging studies in humans. They have previously been used in studies of 'normal' psychological and neurological processes such as vision before gradually transferring into use in pathological disease states such as schizophrenia. These techniques are now beginning to extend into the field of substance misuse and dependence. So far, most functional neuroimaging studies in this field have shown consistent patterns of activation in several brain regions, and theories are emerging based upon these and animal models. Studies of brain connectivity can now begin to help further unravel the tangle of disparate brain regions and their connections that underpin the psychopharmacological processes of dependence.