Zhang Mengzhe, Huang Huiyu, Niu Xiaoyu, Dang Jinghan, Sun Jieping, Tao Qiuying, Wang Weijian, Han Shaoqiang, Cheng Jingliang, Zhang Yong
Department of MRI, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
BMC Psychiatry. 2025 Aug 4;25(1):758. doi: 10.1186/s12888-025-07222-3.
Previous study has overlooked the heterogeneity between hemispheres and the knowledge of brain temporal dynamics in tobacco use disorder (TUD) individuals was limited. Traditional whole-brain based approaches hampered the exploration of dynamic functional connectivity at the hemisphere level.
We recruited 110 male subjects, including 70 smokers (32 high dependence smokers, 38 low dependence smokers) and 40 non-smokers, then obtained their rs-fMRI data and smoking clinical scales. The functional connections of whole-brain were decomposed into inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric connections. Meanwhile, sliding window method was used to evaluate inter- and intra-hemispheric dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) variability. Finally, correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between dFCD variability and clinical scales.
We found shared dFCD variability in visual cortex of bilateral hemispheres among all smokers. Compared to low dependence smokers, high dependence smokers showed higher inter-hemispheric dFCD variability in left insula, and lower intra-hemispheric dFCD variability in right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Moreover, intra-hemispheric dFCD variability of right IPL in high dependence smokers was associated with physical dependence rather than psychosocial factors.
This study revealed shared inter/intra-hemispheric dFCD variability of visual cortex, and different connection patterns of frontoparietal control network and insula at hemisphere level in smokers. These findings supply novel insights into brain functional aberrance in TUD from a dynamic perspective, and suggest hemispheric specialization and aberrant inter-hemispheric communication in TUD.
以往的研究忽视了半球之间的异质性，且对烟草使用障碍（TUD）个体的脑颞叶动力学了解有限。传统的基于全脑的方法阻碍了在半球水平上对动态功能连接的探索。
我们招募了110名男性受试者，包括70名吸烟者（32名高依赖吸烟者，38名低依赖吸烟者）和40名非吸烟者，然后获取他们的静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）数据和吸烟临床量表。全脑的功能连接被分解为半球间和半球内连接。同时，采用滑动窗口法评估半球间和半球内动态功能连接密度（dFCD）的变异性。最后，进行相关性分析以探讨dFCD变异性与临床量表之间的关系。
我们发现所有吸烟者双侧半球视觉皮层存在共同的dFCD变异性。与低依赖吸烟者相比，高依赖吸烟者在左侧岛叶表现出更高的半球间dFCD变异性，而在右侧额下回（IFG）和右侧顶下小叶（IPL）表现出更低的半球内dFCD变异性。此外，高依赖吸烟者右侧IPL的半球内dFCD变异性与身体依赖相关，而非心理社会因素。
本研究揭示了视觉皮层半球间/半球内共同的dFCD变异性，以及吸烟者在半球水平上前额叶顶叶控制网络和岛叶的不同连接模式。这些发现从动态角度为TUD中的脑功能异常提供了新的见解，并提示TUD中半球特化和异常的半球间通讯。
