Magnetic resonance imaging structural alterations in brain of alcohol abusers and its association with impulsivity

Abstract

Despite the suggestion that impulsivity plays a central role in the transfer from a recreational drug use to a substance use disorder, very few studies focused on neurobiological markers for addiction. This study aimed to identify volumetric alterations in a sample of patients with mild alcohol use disorder with a short history of alcohol use, compared with a control group, and also focused on its association with impulsivity levels. Most magnetic resonance imaging studies have focused on severe alcohol use disorder, formerly called alcohol-dependent patients, showing alcohol-related structural alterations and their association with alcohol use history variables but not with personality parameters like impulsivity. Our hypothesis is that our group of alcohol users may already display structural alterations especially in brain regions related to inhibitory control like medial-prefrontal regions, and that those structural alterations could be more associated to personality traits like impulsivity than to drug use variables. Our results clearly demonstrate that our population showed lower regional grey and white matter volumes in the medial-prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, as well as higher regional white matter volume in the ventral striatum and the internal capsule. Volumetric alterations were associated to the Barratt's impulsivity score: the more impulsive the subjects, the lower the medial-prefrontal cortex grey matter volume.

Association of brain age with smoking, alcohol consumption, and genetic variants

“…Our analyses of alcohol intake frequency and RBA indicated that subjects who drank daily or almost daily had a significantly higher RBA compared to those who drank less frequently. Our finding was consistent with previous studies, which showed that heavy alcohol consumption was detrimental to the brain (Asensio et al, 2016;Pfefferbaum et al, 1992;Shokri-Kojori et al, 2017). On the other hand, subjects who drank at special occasions only had on average the lowest RBA of all groups of alcohol consumption frequencies.…”

“…It has also been reported that patients with alcohol use disorder show decreased regional grey and white matter volumes in the medial-prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices. The loss of brain gray and white matter volume accelerates with aging in chronic alcoholics (Asensio et al, 2016;Pfefferbaum et al, 1992).…”

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

“…These brain regions were closely associated with impulsivity as mentioned before [39, 40]. Given that impulsivity is multi-dimensional construct [7] and different aspects of impulsivity may reflect separate processes [6].…”

“…The mPFC was involved in cognitive control that monitored ongoing actions and performance outcomes and subsequent adjustments of behavior and learning to acquire flexible goal-directed behavior [42]. The deficits in this area may lead an impaired cognitive control over emotional and compulsive reactions [39]. Recent theories suggested that the ACC served as a monitoring role for the detection of erroneous or error-prone actions, together with the mPFC involved in the cognitive control [42, 43].…”

Externalizing personality traits, empathy, and gray matter volume in healthy young drinkers

“…2013b; Walhovd et al, 2012), including a smaller study of patients diagnosed with DSM-IV alcohol abuse and matched controls (Asensio et al., 2015), we did not find that gmPVE correlated negatively with self-reported impulsive behavior, either as a function of our BS/IMP component (consisting of significant loadings from scales reflecting boredom susceptibility, impulsive acts, antisocial behaviors, social disinhibition, and a desire to seek out unusual experiences), or when looking specifically at the Impulsivity subscale of the Eysenck I 7 inventory. The Impulsivity subscale of the Eysenck I 7 inventory did, however, correlate positively with bilateral gmPVE in lateral/posterior orbital cortex and insula.…”