Clinical NeuroImaging Research Core, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1108, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Auburn University, 226 Thach Hall, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2022 Nov 11;57(6):712-721. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agac028.
The addiction neurocircuitry model describes the role of several brain circuits (drug reward, negative emotionality and craving/executive control) in alcohol use and subsequent development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Human studies examining longitudinal change using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) are needed to understand how functional changes to these circuits are caused by or contribute to continued AUD.
In order to characterize how intrinsic functional connectivity changes with sustained AUD, we analyzed rs-fMRI data from individuals with (n = 18; treatment seeking and non-treatment seeking) and without (n = 21) AUD collected on multiple visits as part of various research studies at the NIAAA intramural program from 2012 to 2020.
Results of the seed correlation analysis showed that individuals with AUD had an increase in functional connectivity over time between emotionality and craving neurocircuits, and a decrease between executive control and reward networks. Post hoc investigations of AUD severity and alcohol consumption between scans revealed an additive effect of these AUD features in many of the circuits, such that more alcohol consumption or more severe AUD was associated with more pronounced changes to synchronicity.
These findings suggest an increased concordance of networks underlying emotionality and compulsions toward drinking while also a reduction in control network connectivity, consistent with the addiction neurocircuitry model. Further, they suggest a compounding effect of continued heavy drinking on these vulnerabilities in neurocircuitry. More longitudinal research is necessary to understand the trajectories of individuals with AUD not adequately represented in this study, as well as whether this can inform effective harm reduction strategies.
成瘾神经回路模型描述了几个大脑回路（药物奖励、负性情绪和渴望/执行控制）在饮酒和随后发展为酒精使用障碍（AUD）中的作用。需要使用静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）进行人类研究，以观察纵向变化，从而了解这些回路的功能变化是由持续的 AUD 引起的，还是对其有贡献。
为了描述这些回路的固有功能连接如何随持续的 AUD 而变化，我们分析了来自有（n=18；寻求治疗和非寻求治疗）和无（n=21） AUD 的个体的 rs-fMRI 数据，这些个体是作为国家酒精滥用和酒精中毒研究所（NIAAA）在 2012 年至 2020 年期间的各种研究项目的一部分，在多次就诊时收集的。
种子相关分析的结果表明，AUD 个体的情绪和渴望神经回路之间的功能连接随时间增加，而执行控制和奖励网络之间的功能连接减少。对扫描之间的 AUD 严重程度和饮酒量进行的事后调查显示，这些 AUD 特征在许多回路中存在附加效应，即更多的饮酒或更严重的 AUD 与同步性的更明显变化有关。
这些发现表明，在情感和对饮酒的强迫性方面，网络的一致性增加，而控制网络的连通性降低，这与成瘾神经回路模型一致。此外，它们表明，持续大量饮酒对这些神经回路脆弱性的复合效应。需要进行更多的纵向研究，以了解本研究中未充分代表的 AUD 个体的轨迹，以及这是否可以为有效的减少伤害策略提供信息。
