Chronic alcohol consumption and its effect on nodes of frontocerebellar and limbic circuitry: Comparison of effects in France and the United States

Abstract

Alcohol Use Disorders present a significant public health problem in France and the United States (U.S.), but whether the untoward effect of alcohol on the brain results in similar damage in both countries remains unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a retrospective collaborative investigation between two French sites (Caen and Orsay) and a U.S. laboratory (SRI/Stanford University) with T1-weighted, structural MRI data collected on a common imaging platform (1.5T, General Electric) on 288 normal controls (NC), 165 uncomplicated alcoholics (ALC), and 26 patients with alcoholic Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) diagnosed at all sites with a common interview instrument. Data from the two countries were pooled, then preprocessed and analyzed together at the U.S. site using atlas-based parcellation. National differences indicated that thalamic volumes were smaller in ALC in France than the U.S. despite similar alcohol consumption levels in both countries. By contrast, volumes of the hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellar vermis were smaller in KS in the U.S. than France. Estimated amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime, duration of alcoholism, and length of sobriety were significant predictors of selective regional brain volumes in France and in the U.S. The common analysis of MRI data enabled identification of discrepancies in brain volume deficits in France and the U.S. that may reflect fundamental differences in the consequences of alcoholism on brain structure between the two countries, possibly related to genetic or environmental differences.

Problematic alcohol use and reduced hippocampal volume: a meta-analytic review

“…Although the studies included in the meta-analysis all examined associations between problematic alcohol use and hippocampal volumes, there was considerable variability in how alcohol use was defined, study inclusion and exclusion criteria, the nature of the comparison group, and how and whether other substance use and psychiatric comorbidity was addressed. Many studies defined problematic alcohol use as alcohol dependence (Laakso et al 2000; Bleich et al 2003; Beresford et al 2006; Lee et al 2007; Wrase et al 2008; Fein & Fein, 2013; Gross et al 2013; Ozsoy et al 2013; Le Berre et al 2014; Starcevic et al 2015), but some studies defined it as a diagnosis of either alcohol abuse or dependence (De Bellis et al 2000; Nagel et al 2005; Makris et al 2008; Durazzo et al 2011; Smith et al 2011; Fein et al 2013), others defined it as alcohol abuse (Schuff et al 2008), and one study included participants with alcohol dependence but excluded those with alcohol abuse (Agartz et al 2003). Many studies included a ‘super healthy’ comparison group (i.e.…”

“…no diagnosis of any psychiatric disorder; Laakso et al 2000; Agartz et al 2003; Bleich et al 2003), but other studies included a psychiatric comparison group (Schuff et al 2008). Some studies included participants with current use of substances other than alcohol (Medina et al 2007; Fein & Fein, 2013), but most studies excluded participants with either a current or history of other substance use (Sullivan et al 1995; Laakso et al 2000; Agartz et al 2003; Nagel et al 2005; Lee et al 2007; Makris et al 2008; Schuff et al 2008; Wrase et al 2008; Durazzo et al 2011; Smith et al 2011; Fein et al 2013; Gross et al 2013; Ozsoy et al 2013; Le Berre et al 2014; Starcevic et al 2015); several studies did not report whether other substance use was assessed or used as an inclusion or exclusion criterion. Of particular importance, given that other forms of psychopathology have been found to be associated with reduced hippocampal volume, as noted above, several studies included participants with comorbid psychiatric disorders (e.g.…”

A Single-System Model Predicts Recognition Memory and Repetition Priming in Amnesia

“…Although initial neuropsychological studies indicated that the right occipital lobe was such a region (Gabrieli et al, 1995), subsequent investigations have not corroborated this (Yonelinas et al, 2001;Kroll et al, 2003). Nevertheless, it is clear that regions outside the medial temporal lobe are involved in priming (and also recognition; Schacter et al, 2007), and one avenue for future research will be to determine how the activity of different regions maps onto the single strength signal in the SS model.…”

“…We test a relatively homogeneous and well characterized group of amnesic patients that is atypically large (n ϭ 24; Hayes et al, 2012). The patients had Korsakoff's syndrome (KS), a chronic disorder that is often caused by severe alcoholism and thiamine deficiency that results in diencephalic, frontal, and hippocampal brain damage (Le Berre et al, 2014 Verfaellie, 2012). Findings from patients with KS have played a central role in the formulation of multiple-systems views (Hayes et al, 2012), and implicit memory is widely regarded to be preserved in KS (Kopelman et al, 2009;Oudman et al, 2011).…”

What does a comparison of the alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome and thalamic infarction tell us about thalamic amnesia?

“…There are also widespread grey and white matter changes, which are seen in both Korsakoff and non-Korsakoff alcoholics, more severely in the former group (Jacobson and Lishman, 1987;Pitel et al, 2009Pitel et al, , 2012. U.S. studies appear to implicate hippocampal atrophy (Sullivan and Marsh, 2003) more commonly than in U.K. (Colchester et al, 2001) or French investigations (Le Berre et al, 2014). Similarly, a common theme in FDG-PET investigations is reduced glucose uptake in the thalami bilaterally, the hypothalami, the mammillary bodies, and the basal forebrain/orbito-frontal cortex (Reed et al, 2003;Pitel et al, 2009); but more widespread changes have been reported by Pitel et al (2009), many of which are associated with parallel grey matter density changes on MRI.…”