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Duan R, Li Y, Jing L, Zhang T, Yao Y, Gong Z, Shao Y, Song Y, Wang W, Zhang Y, Cheng J, Zhu X, Peng Y, Jia Y. The altered functional connectivity density related to cognitive impairment in alcoholics. Front Psychol 2022; 13:973654. [PMID: 36092050 PMCID: PMC9453650 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.973654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most common substance use disorders contributing to both behavioral and cognitive impairments in patients with AUD. Recent neuroimaging studies point out that AUD is a typical disorder featured by altered functional connectivity. However, the details about how voxel-wise functional coordination remain unknown. Here, we adopted a newly proposed method named functional connectivity density (FCD) to depict altered voxel-wise functional coordination in AUD. The novel functional imaging technique, FCD, provides a comprehensive analytical method for brain's “scale-free” networks. We applied resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) toward subjects to obtain their FCD, including global FCD (gFCD), local FCD (lFCD), and long-range FCD (lrFCD). Sixty-one patients with AUD and 29 healthy controls (HC) were recruited, and patients with AUD were further divided into alcohol-related cognitive impairment group (ARCI, n = 11) and non-cognitive impairment group (AUD-NCI, n = 50). All subjects were asked to stay stationary during the scan in order to calculate the resting-state gFCD, lFCD, and lrFCD values, and further investigate the abnormal connectivity alterations among AUD-NCI, ARCI, and HC. Compared to HC, both AUD groups exhibited significantly altered gFCD in the left inferior occipital lobe, left calcarine, altered lFCD in right lingual, and altered lrFCD in ventromedial frontal gyrus (VMPFC). It is notable that gFCD of the ARCI group was found to be significantly deviated from AUD-NCI and HC in left medial frontal gyrus, which changes probably contributed by the impairment in cognition. In addition, no significant differences in gFCD were found between ARCI and HC in left parahippocampal, while ARCI and HC were profoundly deviated from AUD-NCI, possibly reflecting a compensation of cognition impairment. Further analysis showed that within patients with AUD, gFCD values in left medial frontal gyrus are negatively correlated with MMSE scores, while lFCD values in left inferior occipital lobe are positively related to ADS scores. In conclusion, patients with AUD exhibited significantly altered functional connectivity patterns mainly in several left hemisphere brain regions, while patients with AUD with or without cognitive impairment also demonstrated intergroup FCD differences which correlated with symptom severity, and patients with AUD cognitive impairment would suffer less severe alcohol dependence. This difference in symptom severity probably served as a compensation for cognitive impairment, suggesting a difference in pathological pathways. These findings assisted future AUD studies by providing insight into possible pathological mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ranran Duan
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Yanfei Li
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Lijun Jing
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Tian Zhang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Yaobing Yao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Zhe Gong
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Yingzhe Shao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Yajun Song
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Weijian Wang
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Detection and Application of Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Cognitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Zhengzhou, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Yong Zhang
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Detection and Application of Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Cognitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Zhengzhou, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Jingliang Cheng
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Detection and Application of Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Brain Function of Henan Province, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Cognitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Zhengzhou, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xiaofeng Zhu
- Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang, China
| | - Ying Peng
- Department of Neurology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yanjie Jia
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- *Correspondence: Yanjie Jia
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