Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Seoul National University College of Natural Sciences, 103 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Aug 1;131(3):222-9. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.05.009. Epub 2013 Jun 12.
The presence of morphometric abnormalities of the lateral ventricles, which can reflect focal or diffuse atrophic changes of nearby brain structures, is not well characterized in methamphetamine dependence. The current study was aimed to examine the size and shape alterations of the lateral ventricles in methamphetamine-dependent subjects.
High-resolution brain structural images were obtained from 37 methamphetamine-dependent subjects and 25 demographically matched healthy individuals. Using a combined volumetric and surface-based morphometric approach, the structural variability of the lateral ventricles, with respect to extent and location, was examined.
Methamphetamine-dependent subjects had an enlarged right lateral ventricle compared with healthy individuals. Morphometric analysis revealed a region-specific pattern of lateral ventricular expansion associated with methamphetamine dependence, which was mainly distributed in the areas adjacent to the ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, and thalamus.
Patterns of shape decomposition in the lateral ventricles may have relevance to the structural vulnerability of the prefrontal-ventral striatal-thalamic circuit to methamphetamine-induced neurotoxicity.
侧脑室形态异常的存在，可反映附近脑结构的局灶性或弥漫性萎缩改变，在甲基苯丙胺依赖中尚未得到很好的描述。本研究旨在检查甲基苯丙胺依赖者侧脑室的大小和形状改变。
从 37 名甲基苯丙胺依赖者和 25 名年龄匹配的健康个体中获得高分辨率脑结构图像。使用容积和基于表面的形态计量学方法，检查了侧脑室的结构变异性，包括范围和位置。
与健康个体相比，甲基苯丙胺依赖者右侧侧脑室增大。形态计量分析显示，与甲基苯丙胺依赖相关的侧脑室扩张存在区域特异性模式，主要分布在腹侧纹状体、内侧前额叶皮质和丘脑附近区域。
侧脑室形状分解的模式可能与前额叶-腹侧纹状体-丘脑回路对甲基苯丙胺诱导的神经毒性的结构脆弱性有关。
