Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, USA.
Addict Biol. 2018 Jan;23(1):256-267. doi: 10.1111/adb.12481. Epub 2016 Nov 18.
Research indicates that alcohol misuse is associated with behavioral disinhibition, but the neurophysiological mechanisms governing this relationship remain largely unknown. Recent work suggests that successful inhibition and cognitive control involve electrophysiological theta-band dynamics, including medial frontal cortex (MFC) power enhancement and functional connectivity between the MFC and dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC) regions, which may be disrupted by alcohol misuse. In addition, research suggests that, compared to men, women are at heightened risk of experiencing the negative physical and neurocognitive correlates of drinking. The present study tested the hypothesis that alcohol misuse has a deleterious effect on theta-band response inhibition EEG dynamics in a sample of 300 24-year-old same-sex twins. A cotwin control (CTC) design was used to disentangle premorbid risk for alcohol use from the causal effects of alcohol exposure. Drinking was negatively associated with theta-band MFC power and MFC-dPFC connectivity during response inhibition, and this effect was stronger among women. The CTC analysis suggested that, for women, reduced nogo-related theta-band MFC power and MFC-dPFC connectivity were both consistent with the potential deleterious causal effects of alcohol exposure. These findings suggest that diminished theta-band MFC power and MFC-dPFC connectivity may be neurophysiological mechanisms underlying alcohol-related disinhibition. Although preliminary, these results suggest that normative levels of alcohol use during emerging adulthood have potential sex-specific causal effects on response inhibition EEG dynamics, and thus have potentially significant public health implications.
研究表明，酒精滥用与行为抑制障碍有关，但这一关系的神经生理机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。最近的研究表明，成功的抑制和认知控制涉及电生理θ频段动态，包括内侧前额叶皮层（MFC）的功率增强以及 MFC 和背外侧前额叶皮层（dPFC）之间的功能连接，而酒精滥用可能会破坏这些功能。此外，研究表明，与男性相比，女性更容易出现饮酒带来的负面生理和神经认知后果。本研究在 300 名 24 岁同性别双胞胎样本中测试了以下假设：酒精滥用对θ频段反应抑制 EEG 动力学有不良影响。采用同卵双胞胎对照（CTC）设计来区分酒精使用的前期风险与酒精暴露的因果效应。在反应抑制过程中，饮酒与θ频段 MFC 功率和 MFC-dPFC 连接呈负相关，而这种效应在女性中更强。CTC 分析表明，对于女性来说，减少与禁止相关的θ频段 MFC 功率和 MFC-dPFC 连接都与酒精暴露的潜在有害因果效应一致。这些发现表明，θ频段 MFC 功率和 MFC-dPFC 连接的减少可能是与酒精相关的抑制障碍的神经生理机制。尽管这只是初步研究，但这些结果表明，青春期后期正常水平的酒精使用可能对反应抑制 EEG 动力学具有特定于性别的因果影响，因此具有潜在的重要公共卫生意义。
