Aberrant prefrontal–parietal–cerebellar circuits in alcohol dependence

Abstract

ObjectiveTo identify whether the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) analysis has the potential to serve as a biological marker to detect alcohol-induced spontaneous brain activities and distinguish the patients with alcohol dependence from the healthy subjects.MethodsWe utilized the ALFF analysis to report on the alcohol-induced spontaneous brain activities in 29 patients with alcohol dependence (9 female, 20 male) relative to 29 status-matched healthy subjects (11 female, 18 male). Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to test the ability of the ALFF analysis in discriminating the patients with alcohol dependence from the healthy subjects. Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the relationships between the signal value of those ALFF differences in brain areas and behavioral characteristics.ResultsAlcohol-induced brain differences located in the right inferior parietal lobule and right supplementary motor area with significant higher ALFF values, and in the left precuneus and bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe with lower ALFF values. The movement-related areas were significantly correlated with each other (P<0.05). Receiver operating characteristic curve revealed good area under the curve values (mean, 0.86±0.079; 0.774–0.951) of the ALFF differences in those specific brain areas, as well as high degree of sensitivities (mean, 80.84%±14.01% or 80%±14.56%; 62.5%–100%) and specificities (mean, 83.32%±9.31%; 70.8%–95.8% or 84.16%±8%; 75%–95.8%).ConclusionThe ALFF analysis may serve as a biological indicator to detect the spontaneous brain activities in patients with alcohol dependence. The prefrontal–parietal–cerebellar circuit appears to be disturbed by long-term alcoholism in patients with alcohol dependence.

Differential effects of alcohol‐drinking patterns on the structure and function of the brain and cognitive performance in young adult drinkers: A pilot study

“…Simultaneously, Liu et al. (2018) reported the aberrant amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in the prefrontal–parietal–cerebellar circuit in patients with alcohol dependence. Tu et al.…”

“…Existing studies support that there is an association between alcohol‐drinking patterns and different structural and functional impairments to the brain, especially in young adults who drink alcohol (Kim et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2018; Mashhoon et al., 2014; Tu et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2021). Mashhoon et al.…”

Neural correlates of visuoperceptive changes in severe alcohol use disorder: A critical review of neuroimaging and electrophysiological findings

“…(2015) found changes in frontal, anterior frontal, centro‐parietal, parieto‐occipital, and occipital lobes, especially in the right cerebral hemisphere, of individuals with SAUD compared to healthy controls during an active task requiring to judge whether two successive object pictures were similar. The analysis of spontaneous fluctuations in BOLD‐fMRI signal intensity of the resting brain also disclosed increased intensity in the right inferior parietal lobule and right supplementary motor area of individuals with SAUD, in combination with decreased intensity in the left precuneus and bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe (Liu et al., 2018). These areas could also predict membership (SAUD vs. healthy control) with high sensitivity and specificity.…”

Aberrant intrinsic neural network strength in individuals with “smartphone addiction”: An MRI data fusion study

“…ALFF captures the relative magnitude of blood oxygen level dependent signal changes of intrinsic neural activity in distinct brain regions. This approach has been shown to be suitable to identify brain regions/networks with aberrant local functioning in patients with substance‐use disorders and IGD (Liu et al., 2018 ; Yuan et al., 2013 ).…”