Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
Transl Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 18;8(1):119. doi: 10.1038/s41398-018-0164-0.
Research of dopaminergic deficits has focused on the ventral striatum (VS) with many studies elucidating altered resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in individuals with cocaine dependence (CD). The VS comprises functional subregions and delineation of subregional changes in rsFC requires careful consideration of the differences between addicted and healthy populations. In the current study, we parcellated the VS using whole-brain rsFC differences between CD and non-drug-using controls (HC). Voxels with similar rsFC changes formed functional clusters. The results showed that the VS was divided into 3 subclusters, in the area of the dorsal-anterior VS (daVS), dorsal posterior VS (dpVS), and ventral VS (vVS), each in association with different patterns of rsFC. The three subregions shared reduced rsFC with bilateral hippocampal/parahippocampal gyri (HG/PHG) but also showed distinct changes, including reduced vVS rsFC with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and increased daVS rsFC with visual cortex in CD as compared to HC. Across CD, daVS visual cortical connectivity was positively correlated with amount of prior-month cocaine use and cocaine craving, and vVS vmPFC connectivity was negatively correlated with the extent of depression and anxiety. These findings suggest a distinct pattern of altered VS subregional rsFC in cocaine dependence, and some of the changes have eluded analyses using the whole VS as a seed region. The findings may provide new insight to delineating VS circuit deficits in cocaine dependence and provide an alternative analytical framework to address functional dysconnectivity in other mental illnesses.
多巴胺能缺陷的研究集中在腹侧纹状体 (VS)，许多研究阐明了可卡因依赖 (CD) 个体静息状态功能连接 (rsFC) 的改变。VS 由功能亚区组成，要详细说明 rsFC 中亚区的变化，需要仔细考虑成瘾者和健康人群之间的差异。在目前的研究中，我们使用 CD 和非药物使用对照 (HC) 之间的全脑 rsFC 差异对 VS 进行分区。具有相似 rsFC 变化的体素形成功能簇。结果表明，VS 分为 3 个亚区，在背前部 VS (daVS)、背后部 VS (dpVS) 和腹侧 VS (vVS) 的区域，每个亚区都与不同的 rsFC 模式相关。这三个亚区与双侧海马/海马旁回 (HG/PHG) 的 rsFC 减少有关，但也表现出不同的变化，包括与腹侧前扣带回皮层 (vmPFC) 的 vVS rsFC 减少和与 CD 中视觉皮层的 daVS rsFC 增加。在 CD 中，daVS 视觉皮层的连接性与前一个月可卡因使用量和可卡因渴求呈正相关，而 vVS vmPFC 的连接性与抑郁和焦虑的严重程度呈负相关。这些发现表明可卡因依赖中 VS 亚区 rsFC 的改变具有独特的模式，而一些变化在使用整个 VS 作为种子区域的分析中被忽略了。这些发现可能为描绘可卡因依赖中 VS 回路缺陷提供新的见解，并为解决其他精神疾病中的功能连接障碍提供替代的分析框架。
