Squeglia Lindsay M, Rinker Daniel A, Bartsch Hauke, Castro Norma, Chung Yoonho, Dale Anders M, Jernigan Terry L, Tapert Susan F
University of California, San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, La Jolla, CA, USA.
University of Southern California, Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2014 Jul;9:117-25. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2014.02.005. Epub 2014 Feb 22.
Brain abnormalities in adolescent heavy drinkers may result from alcohol exposure, or stem from pre-existing neural features.
This longitudinal morphometric study investigated 40 healthy adolescents, ages 12-17 at study entry, half of whom (n=20) initiated heavy drinking over the 3-year follow-up. Both assessments included high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. FreeSurfer was used to segment brain volumes, which were measured longitudinally using the newly developed quantitative anatomic regional change analysis (QUARC) tool.
At baseline, participants who later transitioned into heavy drinking showed smaller left cingulate, pars triangularis, and rostral anterior cingulate volume, and less right cerebellar white matter volumes (p<.05), compared to continuous non-using teens. Over time, participants who initiated heavy drinking showed significantly greater volume reduction in the left ventral diencephalon, left inferior and middle temporal gyrus, and left caudate and brain stem, compared to substance-naïve youth (p<.05).
Findings suggest pre-existing volume differences in frontal brain regions in future drinkers and greater brain volume reduction in subcortical and temporal regions after alcohol use was initiated. This is consistent with literature showing pre-existing cognitive deficits on tasks recruited by frontal regions, as well as post-drinking consequences on brain regions involved in language and spatial tasks.
青少年酗酒者的大脑异常可能是由酒精暴露引起的，也可能源于先前存在的神经特征。
这项纵向形态学研究调查了40名健康青少年，研究开始时年龄在12 - 17岁，其中一半（n = 20）在3年随访期间开始酗酒。两次评估均包括高分辨率磁共振成像。使用FreeSurfer分割脑容量，并使用新开发的定量解剖区域变化分析（QUARC）工具纵向测量。
在基线时，与持续不饮酒的青少年相比，后来转变为酗酒的参与者左扣带回、三角部和喙前扣带回体积较小，右侧小脑白质体积较小（p <.05）。随着时间的推移，与未接触过药物的年轻人相比，开始酗酒的参与者左腹侧间脑、左颞下回和颞中回以及左尾状核和脑干的体积减少明显更大（p <.05）。
研究结果表明，未来饮酒者额叶脑区预先存在体积差异，饮酒开始后皮质下和颞叶区域脑体积减少更大。这与文献表明额叶区域所涉及任务预先存在认知缺陷以及饮酒后对涉及语言和空间任务的脑区产生影响是一致的。
