Abstract
Background
Automated alcohol craving and habitual alcohol consumption characterize the later
stages of alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study reanalyzes previously collected functional
neuroimaging data in combination with the Craving Automated Scale for Alcohol (CAS-A)
questionnaire to investigate the neural correlates and brain networks underlying automated
drinking characterized by unawareness and non-volition.
Methods
We assessed 49 abstinent male AUD patients and 36 male healthy controls (HC) during
a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-based alcohol cue-reactivity task.
We performed whole-brain analyses examining the associations between CAS-A scores
and other clinical instruments and neural activation patterns in the alcohol versus
neutral contrast. Furthermore, we performed psychophysiological-interaction (PPI)
analyses to assess the functional connectivity between predefined seed regions and
other brain areas.
Results
In AUD individuals, higher CAS-A scores correlated with greater activation in dorsal
striatal, pallidal and prefrontal regions, including frontal white matter, and with
lower activation in visual- and motor-processing regions. Between-group PPI analyses
showed extensive connectivity between the seed regions IFG and angular gyrus and several
frontal, parietal and temporal brain regions in AUD versus HC.
Conclusions
The present study applied a new lens to previously acquired alcohol cue-reactivity
fMRI data by correlating neural activation patterns with clinical CAS-A scores to
elucidate potential neural correlates of automated alcohol craving and habitual alcohol
consumption. Our results support previous findings showing that alcohol addiction
is associated with hyperactivation in habit-processing regions, with hypoactivation
in areas mediating motor and attention processing, and with general hyperconnectivity.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
December 1,
2022
Received in revised form:
November 28,
2022
Received:
August 17,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
Author contribution
ILH and AML analyzed data and drafted the manuscript. HT helped with imaging data analysis. HN and SVK developed the CAS-A questionnaire. SVK supervised the study. SVK, KM, FK, WS were responsible for the study concept and design. All authors provided critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved final version for publication.
Conflict of Interest
The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Society of Biological Psychiatry.
