Janes Amy C, Farmer Stacey, Peechatka Alyssa L, Frederick Blaise de B, Lukas Scott E
1] McLean Imaging Center, Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA [2] Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA.
McLean Imaging Center, Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2015 Jun;40(7):1561-8. doi: 10.1038/npp.2015.9. Epub 2015 Jan 8.
The insula plays a critical role in maintaining nicotine dependence and reactivity to smoking cues. More broadly, the insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) are key nodes of the salience network (SN), which integrates internal and extrapersonal information to guide behavior. Thus, insula-dACC interactions may be integral in processing salient information such as smoking cues that facilitate continued nicotine use. We evaluated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from nicotine-dependent participants during rest, and again when they viewed smoking-related images. Greater insula-dACC coupling at rest was significantly correlated with enhanced smoking cue-reactivity in brain areas associated with attention and motor preparation, including the visual cortex, right ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, and the dorsal striatum. In an independent cohort, we found that insula-dACC connectivity was stable over 1-h delay and was not influenced by changes in subjective craving or expired carbon monoxide, suggesting that connectivity strength between these regions may be a trait associated with heightened cue-reactivity. Finally, we also showed that insula reactivity to smoking cues correlates with a rise in cue-reactivity throughout the entire SN, indicating that the insula's role in smoking cue-reactivity is not functionally independent, and may actually represent the engagement of the entire SN. Collectively, these data provide a more network-level understanding of the insula's role in nicotine dependence and shows a relationship between inherent brain organization and smoking cue-reactivity.
脑岛在维持尼古丁依赖和对吸烟线索的反应性方面起着关键作用。更广泛地说，脑岛和背侧前扣带回皮质（dACC）是突显网络（SN）的关键节点，该网络整合内部和外部信息以指导行为。因此，脑岛与dACC之间的相互作用可能在处理诸如促进持续使用尼古丁的吸烟线索等突显信息中不可或缺。我们评估了尼古丁依赖参与者在休息时以及观看与吸烟相关图像时的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据。静息时脑岛与dACC之间更强的耦合与大脑中与注意力和运动准备相关区域（包括视觉皮质、右侧腹外侧前额叶皮质和背侧纹状体）中增强的吸烟线索反应性显著相关。在一个独立队列中，我们发现脑岛与dACC之间的连接性在1小时的延迟内是稳定的，并且不受主观渴望或呼出一氧化碳变化的影响，这表明这些区域之间的连接强度可能是一种与线索反应性增强相关的特质。最后，我们还表明，脑岛对吸烟线索的反应性与整个突显网络中线索反应性的增加相关，这表明脑岛在吸烟线索反应性中的作用并非功能独立，实际上可能代表整个突显网络的参与。总体而言，这些数据为脑岛在尼古丁依赖中的作用提供了更具网络层面的理解，并显示了内在脑组织与吸烟线索反应性之间的关系。
