Centre for Neuroimaging, Cognition and Genomics (NICOG), Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, NCBES Galway Neuroscience Centre, College of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
School of Psychology, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
Brain Connect. 2022 Nov;12(9):823-834. doi: 10.1089/brain.2021.0137. Epub 2022 Mar 23.
Structural alterations in cortical thickness and the microstructural organization of white matter are independently associated with non-dependent alcohol consumption and bipolar disorder (BD). Identifying their interactive and network-level effects on brain topology may identify the impact of alcohol on reward and emotion circuitry, and its contribution to relapse in BD. Thirty-four BD-I (DSM-IV-TR) and 38 healthy controls (HC) underwent T1 and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scanning, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption to assess alcohol use. Connectomes comprising 34 cortical and 9 subcortical nodes bilaterally (Freesurfer v5.3) connected by fractional anisotropy-weighted edges derived from non-tensor based deterministic constrained spherical deconvolution tractography (ExploreDTI v4.8.6) underwent permutation-based topological analysis (NBS v1.2) and were examined for the effects of alcohol use and diagnosis-by-alcohol use accounting for age, sex, and diagnosis. Alcohol was significantly related to a subnetwork, encompassing connections between fronto-limbic, basal ganglia, and temporal nodes ( = 5-8.4, = 0.031) and it was not detected to have an effect on global brain integration or segregation. A portion of this network (18%), involving cortico-limbic and basal ganglia connections, was differentially impacted by alcohol in the BD relative to the control group ( = 5-8.8, = 0.033), despite the groups' consuming similar amounts of alcohol (BD: mean ± standard deviation 4.95 ± 3.0; HC 3.62 ± 3.0, = 1.88, = 0.06). Non-dependent alcohol use impacts brain architectural organization and connectivity within salience, reward, and affective circuitry. The relationship between alcohol use and topology of the network in BD suggests an interactive effect between specific biological vulnerability and alcohol use, which may explain the susceptibility to an increased risk of relapse in the disorder. Impact statement The association between non-dependent alcohol use and neural architecture in bipolar disorder (BD) is unknown, despite the poor clinical trajectory and increased likelihood of relapse associated with alcohol use in BD. We demonstrate that together alcohol and a diagnosis of BD is associated with a subnetwork involving nodes of the cortico-limbic and reward networks. This subnetwork, demonstrated in BD and absent in controls, differentially involves nodes that are specific to reward and emotion processes. This suggests a diagnosis-specific biological vulnerability for alcohol use and may be consistent with known mood lability and thus relapse associated with alcohol use in BD.
皮质厚度的结构改变和白质的微观结构组织与非依赖性酒精消费和双相情感障碍（BD）独立相关。确定它们对大脑拓扑结构的相互作用和网络水平的影响，可以确定酒精对奖励和情绪回路的影响，以及其对 BD 复发的贡献。34 名 BD-I（DSM-IV-TR）和 38 名健康对照者（HC）接受了 T1 和弥散加权磁共振成像扫描，并接受了酒精使用障碍识别测试-消费评估酒精使用情况。使用基于非张量的确定性约束球内去卷积轨迹追踪技术（ExploreDTI v4.8.6）从分数各向异性加权边缘得出的 34 个皮质和 9 个皮质下节点双侧连接构成的连接体（Freesurfer v5.3）进行了基于置换的拓扑分析（NBS v1.2），并检查了酒精使用和诊断-酒精使用对年龄、性别和诊断的影响。酒精与一个包括额-边缘、基底节和颞节点之间连接的子网显著相关（ = 5-8.4， = 0.031），并且未检测到它对大脑整体整合或分离有影响。该网络的一部分（18%），涉及皮质-边缘和基底节的连接，在 BD 中与对照组相比（ = 5-8.8， = 0.033），受酒精影响不同，尽管两组的饮酒量相似（BD：平均值 ± 标准差 4.95 ± 3.0；HC 3.62 ± 3.0， = 1.88， = 0.06）。非依赖性酒精使用会影响奖励和情感回路中的突显、奖励和情感回路的大脑结构组织和连接。BD 中酒精使用与网络拓扑之间的关系表明，特定的生物学脆弱性和酒精使用之间存在相互作用，这可能解释了该疾病中复发风险增加的易感性。 尽管非依赖性酒精使用与双相情感障碍（BD）中的神经结构有关，但仍不清楚，尽管与 BD 中的酒精使用相关的临床轨迹较差且复发可能性增加。我们证明，酒精和 BD 诊断共同与一个涉及皮质-边缘和奖励网络节点的子网有关。该子网在 BD 中显示，而在对照组中不存在，涉及与奖励和情绪过程特定的节点。这表明酒精使用的诊断特异性生物学脆弱性，这可能与已知的情绪不稳定一致，因此与 BD 中酒精使用相关的复发有关。
