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Cited by 83Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Alterations in Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity in Alcohol Dependent Patients and Possible Association with Impulsivity

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Wang, Junkai, Fan, Yunli, Dong, Yue, Ma, Mengying, Ma, Yi, Dong, Yuru, Niu, Yajuan, Jiang, Yin +5 more·2016·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0161956PMC PMC5004845
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have documented that heightened impulsivity likely contributes to the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorders. However, there is still a lack of studies that comprehensively detected the brain changes associated with abnormal impulsivity in alcohol addicts. This study was designed to investigate the alterations in brain structure and functional connectivity associated with abnormal impulsivity in alcohol dependent patients. METHODS: Brain structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data as well as impulsive behavior data were collected from 20 alcohol dependent patients and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls respectively. Voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate the differences of grey matter volume, and tract-based spatial statistics was used to detect abnormal white matter regions between alcohol dependent patients and healthy controls. The alterations in resting-state functional connectivity in alcohol dependent patients were examined using selected brain areas with gray matter deficits as seed regions. RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, alcohol dependent patients had significantly reduced gray matter volume in the mesocorticolimbic system including the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex and the putamen, decreased fractional anisotropy in the regions connecting the damaged grey matter areas driven by higher radial diffusivity value in the same areas and decreased resting-state functional connectivity within the reward network. Moreover, the gray matter volume of the left medial prefrontal cortex exhibited negative correlations with various impulse indices. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that chronic alcohol dependence could cause a complex neural changes linked to abnormal impulsivity.

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  • Clinical imaging studies have demonstrated robust structural and functional deficits in the PFC across a range of disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, PTSD, alcohol abuse disorder, and substance abuse disorder.

    “Clinical imaging studies have confirmed the results of these studies, demonstrating robust structural and functional deficits in the PFC across a range of disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, PTSD, alcohol abuse disorder, and substance abuse disorder (84–103).”

    From Psychedelics and Other Psychoplastogens for Treating Mental Illness. (2021) · cites this paper as [93]

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Wang, J., Fan, Y., Dong, Y., Ma, M., Ma, Y., Dong, Y., Niu, Y., Jiang, Y., Wang, H., Wang, Z., Wu, L., Sun, H., & Cui, C.
Affiliations
  • Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (CN)
  • Peking University (CN)
  • Chinese People's Armed Police General Hospital (CN)
  • Capital Medical University (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Wu, Liuzhen
  • Sun, Hongqiang
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2016-08-30
Volume
11
Issue
8
Pages
e0161956
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0161956
PMC
PMC5004845
OpenAlex
W2513123599
Cited by
83
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 3
FWCI
7.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (81371462)
  • the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81221002)
  • National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB553500)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
alcoholism, impulsivity, gray matter volume, white matter changes, resting-state functional connectivity, mesocorticolimbic system, reward network, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, fractional anisotropy, radial diffusivity
MeSH terms
Adult, Alcoholism, Brain, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neural Pathways, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, White Matter, Gray Matter

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