Section for Brain Electrophysiology and Imaging, LCTS, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1108, Building 10, Room 1-5435, Bethesda, MD 20892-1256, USA.
Psychiatry Res. 2012 Nov 30;204(2-3):101-11. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.05.003. Epub 2012 Nov 11.
Alterations of brain structures have been seen in patients suffering from drug abuse or mental disorders like schizophrenia. Similar changes in volume of brain structures have been observed in both alcoholic men and women. We examined the thickness of gray matter in the cerebral cortex in control men and women (n=69, 47 men) and alcohol-dependent subjects (n=130, 83 men) to test the hypothesis that alcoholic inpatients would have more cortical damage than controls. We also hypothesized that alcoholic women would be more affected than alcoholic men. Alcoholic participants with a history of schizophrenia, psychotic, or bipolar disorder were excluded from the study. Volumetric structural magnetic resonance images were collected, 3D surfaces were created using Freesurfer, and statistical testing for cortical thickness differences was carried out using AFNI/SUMA. Covarying for age and years of education, we confirmed significant differences between alcoholics and healthy controls in cortical thickness in both the left and right hemispheres. Significant differences in cortical thickness between control men and women were also observed. These differences may reflect sexual dimorphisms in the human brain, a genetic predisposition to alcoholism and comorbid drug use, and the extent of gray matter damage in alcoholism and substance use.
在患有药物滥用或精神疾病（如精神分裂症）的患者中，已经观察到大脑结构的改变。在男性和女性酗酒者中，也观察到大脑结构体积的类似变化。我们检查了对照组男性和女性（n=69，47 名男性）以及酒精依赖受试者（n=130，83 名男性）大脑皮层灰质的厚度，以检验以下假设：住院酒精中毒患者的大脑皮层损伤比对照组更严重。我们还假设，女性酗酒者比男性酗酒者受到的影响更大。患有精神分裂症、精神病或双相情感障碍病史的酒精中毒参与者被排除在研究之外。采集容积结构磁共振图像，使用 Freesurfer 创建 3D 表面，并使用 AFNI/SUMA 进行皮质厚度差异的统计检验。在协方差年龄和受教育年限后，我们在左右半球的皮质厚度方面都证实了酗酒者和健康对照组之间的显著差异。还观察到了对照组男性和女性之间的皮质厚度差异。这些差异可能反映了人类大脑的性别二态性、对酒精中毒和合并药物使用的遗传易感性，以及酒精中毒和物质使用中灰质损伤的程度。
