Fu Lili, Chen Huijuan, Liu Tao, Liu Liting, Fu Qingqing, Huang Weiyuan, Chen Feng
Department of Radiology, Hainan General Hospital (The Hainan Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China), Haikou, China.
Department of Radiology, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 May 2;13:830541. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.830541. eCollection 2022.
This study aimed to investigate brain spontaneous neural activity changes in betel quid dependence (BQD) chewers using the percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) method.
This study included 48 BQD chewers. The healthy control (HC) group comprised 35 volunteers who were matched with BQD chewers in age, gender, and educational status. All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and neuropsychological tests. The PerAF method was used to identify BQD-related regional brain activity changes. An independent samples -test was used to evaluate the PerAF difference across two groups. The association between PerAF changes and clinical features such as BQD scores, duration of BQD, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-24 item (HAMD-24), and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale-14 item (HAMA-14) was evaluated by using Spearman's correlation analysis. It assessed the ability of the PerAF method to distinguish between BQD chewers and HCs using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
Compared to the control group, BQD chewers showed decreased PerAF in right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), right insula, right precuneus, left putamen, left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and left cerebellum and increased PerAF in right orbitofrontal and left superior temporal gyrus (STG) [ < 0.05, Gaussian random field (GRF) corrected]. PerAF values of the right MFG and right ACC had a significant negative relationship with the duration of BQD ( < 0.05). The average values of PerAF in the left putamen, left cerebellum, and left STG showed significant discriminatory power in distinguishing BQD chewers from HCs, with relatively prime area under the curve (AUC) values.
Our findings suggested that betel quid chewing is associated with spontaneous neural activity alterations in the impulsivity areas (MFG and ACC), cognitive (MFG, ACC, precuneus, and the cerebellum), and reward (orbitofrontal, putamen, and insula) systems, which may be correlated with neuropathological mechanisms of BQD. Also, PerAF may be useful as a potential sensitive biomarker for identifying spontaneous brain activity changes in BQD chewers.
本研究旨在采用波动百分比（PerAF）方法，调查嚼槟榔成瘾者大脑自发神经活动的变化。
本研究纳入48名嚼槟榔成瘾者。健康对照组（HC）由35名在年龄、性别和教育程度上与嚼槟榔成瘾者相匹配的志愿者组成。所有受试者均接受静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）和神经心理学测试。采用PerAF方法识别与嚼槟榔成瘾相关的脑区活动变化。使用独立样本t检验评估两组之间的PerAF差异。通过Spearman相关分析评估PerAF变化与嚼槟榔成瘾评分、嚼槟榔成瘾持续时间、汉密尔顿抑郁量表24项（HAMD-24）和汉密尔顿焦虑量表14项（HAMA-14）等临床特征之间的关联。使用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线评估PerAF方法区分嚼槟榔成瘾者和健康对照组的能力。
与对照组相比，嚼槟榔成瘾者右侧前扣带回皮质（ACC）、右侧额中回（MFG）、右侧岛叶、右侧楔前叶、左侧壳核、左侧缘上回（SMG）和左侧小脑的PerAF降低，右侧眶额回和左侧颞上回（STG）的PerAF升高[P<0.05，高斯随机场（GRF）校正]。右侧MFG和右侧ACC的PerAF值与嚼槟榔成瘾持续时间呈显著负相关（P<0.05）。左侧壳核、左侧小脑和左侧STG的PerAF平均值在区分嚼槟榔成瘾者和健康对照组方面显示出显著的鉴别能力，曲线下面积（AUC）值相对较高。
我们的研究结果表明，嚼槟榔与冲动区域（MFG和ACC）、认知（MFG、ACC、楔前叶和小脑）和奖赏（眶额回、壳核和岛叶）系统的自发神经活动改变有关，这可能与嚼槟榔成瘾的神经病理机制相关。此外，PerAF可能作为一种潜在的敏感生物标志物，用于识别嚼槟榔成瘾者大脑的自发活动变化。
