Influence of Heart Rate Variability on Abstinence-Related Changes in Brain State in Everyday Drinkers

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is now common practice worldwide, and functional brain networks are beginning to reveal the complex interactions observed with alcohol consumption and abstinence. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) has a well-documented relationship with alcohol use, and a growing body of research is finding links between the ANS and functional brain networks. This study recruited everyday drinkers in an effort to uncover the relationship between alcohol abstinence, ANS function, and whole brain functional brain networks. Participants (n = 29), 24–60 years-of-age, consumed moderate levels of alcohol regularly (males 2.4 (±0.26) drinks/day, females 2.3 (±0.96) drinks/day). ANS function, specifically cardiac vagal tone, was assessed using the Porges-Bohrer method for calculating respiratory sinus arrhythmia (PBRSA). Functional brain networks were generated from resting-state MRI scans obtained following 3-day periods of typical consumption and abstinence. A multi-task mixed-effects regression model determined the influences of HRV and drinking state on functional network connectivity. Results showed differences in the relationship between the strength of network connections and clustering coefficients across drinking states, moderated by PBRSA. Increases in connection strength between highly clustered nodes during abstinence as PBRSA increases demonstrates a greater possible range of topological configurations at high PBRSA values. This novel finding begins to shed light on the complex interactions between typical alcohol abstinence and physiological responses of the central and autonomic nervous system.

Desire and craving measured using behavioral ratings and brain network topology differ significantly among moderate to heavy alcohol consumers

“…All 39 participants (17 males) were included in the brain imaging analyses. Based on previous findings in this drinking population (Peterson, Laurienti, et al, 2021;Peterson, Mayhugh, et al, 2021),…”

“…All 39 participants (17 males) were included in the brain imaging analyses. Based on previous findings in this drinking population (Peterson, Laurienti, et al, 2021; Peterson, Mayhugh, et al, 2021), along with the results of the statistical analyses of the behavioral ratings, the brain network analyses focused on imaging and behavioral ratings from the alcohol image task in the abstained state. Results demonstrating the interactions of interest in the DMN, depicted in Figures 6 and 7, from both the desire and craving mixed models are included in Table 7, with results from the full models, including all covariates, presented in the Appendix S1.…”

“…Our research group aims to explore the important neurobiological effects of drinking and abstinence in nonbinging daily alcohol consumers, a group that comprises a large proportion of the current alcohol drinking population (NIAAA, 2011a;SAMHSA, 2019). In our previous studies of abstinence in nonbinging daily alcohol consumers Mayhugh, Rejeski, et al, 2018;Peterson, Mayhugh, et al, 2021), participants anecdotally described "craving" as too clinical a term to describe their "desire" for Results: Ratings of desire and craving differed significantly from one another in the survey data and in the ratings collected during image viewing. The strength of the desire experience was higher overall than craving, but the fluctuations over time were similar.…”

“…Functional brain networks were constructed from BOLD fMRI data; those presented here come from data collected during alcohol image viewing following abstinence, with the theory that the most physiologically relevant results would be found during this period of physiological stress (abstinence) and psychological stress (alcohol image presentation; Peterson, Laurienti, et al, 2021; Peterson, Mayhugh, et al, 2021). Functional networks were generated in the WFU_MMNET Matlab Toolbox (Bahrami et al, 2019; Simpson et al, 2019) by averaging time series data into 268 functionally defined regions classified in the Shen atlas (Shen et al, 2013) and then performing node‐by‐node Pearson correlations.…”

“…Our research group aims to explore the important neurobiological effects of drinking and abstinence in nonbinging daily alcohol consumers, a group that comprises a large proportion of the current alcohol drinking population (NIAAA, 2011a; SAMHSA, 2019). In our previous studies of abstinence in nonbinging daily alcohol consumers (Mayhugh, Laurienti, et al, 2018; Mayhugh, Rejeski, et al, 2018; Peterson, Mayhugh, et al, 2021), participants anecdotally described “craving” as too clinical a term to describe their “desire” for alcohol. As evidence, this population has reported very low craving levels, even following stress during a period of alcohol abstinence (Mayhugh, Rejeski, et al, 2018).…”