Perini Irene, Karlsson Hanna, McIntyre Sarah, Heilig Markus
Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, Linköping, Sweden.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2025 Mar;49(3):551-563. doi: 10.1111/acer.15532. Epub 2025 Feb 2.
In a population of light and heavy, nontreatment seeking drinkers, we recently showed that choice for alcohol versus a concurrently available snack reward was sensitive to the relative cost of alcohol. Here, we examined the neural substrates of alcohol choice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a new sample of light and heavy drinkers.
Participants were scanned during the Concurrent Alcohol Food Choice task, and collected points associated with the images of alcohol or snack rewards that they could redeem at the end of the experiment. As cost manipulation, point values were equal or varied so that they favored alcohol or the snack reward. Linear mixed-effects models were used for the analyses of behavioral and brain data.
In a replication of prior findings, alcohol choice was sensitive to the relative value of alcohol in both groups. Neural activations in, among others, orbitofrontal cortex and insula were associated to relative value during choice. In addition, we observed that choosing alcohol as opposed to snack engaged two separate sets of brain regions. We did not replicate our prior finding of increased choice preference for alcohol in heavy compared to light drinkers and found no between-group differences in brain activity.
Overall, we replicated intact sensitivity to relative costs of alcohol in heavy drinkers and found its associated brain activity regions involved in value and salience attribution. Alcohol choice engaged regions involved in value-based behavior while snack preference elicited activity in areas linked to externally oriented attention. The failure to replicate the between-group differences may be due to the artificial MRI environment or observed differences in personality traits.
在一群轻度和重度、未寻求治疗的饮酒者中，我们最近发现，在酒精与同时可得的零食奖励之间进行选择时，对酒精的选择对酒精的相对成本敏感。在此，我们使用功能磁共振成像（MRI）在一个新的轻度和重度饮酒者样本中研究了酒精选择的神经基础。
在同时进行酒精与食物选择任务期间对参与者进行扫描，并收集与他们在实验结束时可以兑换的酒精或零食奖励图像相关的点数。作为成本操纵，点数价值相等或不同，以便偏向于酒精或零食奖励。使用线性混合效应模型分析行为和大脑数据。
在重复先前的研究结果时，两组中酒精选择对酒精的相对价值均敏感。在选择过程中，眶额皮质和脑岛等区域的神经激活与相对价值相关。此外，我们观察到选择酒精而非零食会激活两组不同的脑区。我们没有重复先前的发现，即与轻度饮酒者相比，重度饮酒者对酒精的选择偏好增加，并且未发现两组之间的大脑活动差异。
总体而言，我们在重度饮酒者中完整地重复了对酒精相对成本的敏感性，并发现其相关的大脑活动区域参与价值和显著性归因。酒精选择激活了参与基于价值行为的区域，而零食偏好则在与外部定向注意力相关的区域引发了活动。未能重复组间差异可能是由于人工MRI环境或观察到的人格特质差异。
