Gender dimorphism of brain reward system volumes in alcoholism - PubMed (original) (raw)

Gender dimorphism of brain reward system volumes in alcoholism

Kayle S Sawyer et al. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2017.

Abstract

The brain's reward network has been reported to be smaller in alcoholic men compared to nonalcoholic men, but little is known about the volumes of reward regions in alcoholic women. Morphometric analyses were performed on magnetic resonance brain scans of 60 long-term chronic alcoholics (ALC; 30 men) and 60 nonalcoholic controls (NC; 29 men). We derived volumes of total brain, and cortical and subcortical reward-related structures including the dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC), orbitofrontal, and cingulate cortices, and the temporal pole, insula, amygdala, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens septi (NAc), and ventral diencephalon (VDC). We examined the relationships of the volumetric findings to drinking history. Analyses revealed a significant gender interaction for the association between alcoholism and total reward network volumes, with ALC men having smaller reward volumes than NC men and ALC women having larger reward volumes than NC women. Analyses of a priori subregions revealed a similar pattern of reward volume differences with significant gender interactions for DLPFC and VDC. Overall, the volume of the cerebral ventricles in ALC participants was negatively associated with duration of abstinence, suggesting decline in atrophy with greater length of sobriety.

Keywords: Abstinence; Alcohol; Brain morphometry; Drinking history; MRI; Reward network; Sex.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None of the authors reported having any relevant biomedical financial interest or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Three-dimensional representation of the cortical and subcortical structures of the brain's reward system. Image A shows a lateral view of the right hemisphere. Images B and C show a medial view of the right hemisphere; image D is an inferior view. Each region has been justified as an independent a priori analysis in previous literature that indicates involvement in alcoholism and addiction: Amyg – amygdala (32; 35; 68), CGa – anterior cingulate cortex (66; 69; 70), CGp – posterior cingulate cortex (71; 72), DLPFC – dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (35; 66; 69), FOC – orbitofrontal cortex (73–75), Hipp – hippocampus (29; 30), INS – insula (35; 66; 69; 70), NAc – nucleus accumbens septi (35), PHa – anterior parahippocampal gyrus (76), PHp – posterior parahippocampal gyrus (77), SC – subcallosal cortex (78), TP – temporal pole (79), VDC – ventral diencephalon (not shown; composed of the basal forebrain, hypothalamus, sublenticular extended amygdala, mammillary bodies, and a large portion of the ventral tegmentum area) (80). Modified from Makris et al. (2008), with permission.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Reward volumes in alcoholic and nonalcoholic men and women. Lower alcoholism-related reward network volumes were observed for men, but increases were observed for women. Boxplot whiskers represent the most extreme values within double the interquartile range, and the middle band represents the median. There was one outlier, indicated by the red dot, and results did not change when that value was removed. Stars indicate significant differences (p < 0.05).

Figure 3

Figure 3

Brain volumes in relation to drinking variables. Brain volumes were significantly associated with daily drinks, duration of heavy drinking, and length of sobriety. These leverage plots (81) represent the relationships between the specified drinking history variables and regional brain volumes, covaried for age. For the anterior cingulate cortex and the temporal pole, the gender interactions were significant (p < 0.05), so the relationships were calculated separately for ALC men and ALC women, and the plots for men and women were overlaid. Red circles indicate ALC women; blue triangles indicate ALC men. Regression lines and 95% confidence curves of the slopes (dotted lines) are displayed.

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