Poster No:
1677
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Gabriel C. Rodriguez1, Eric Claus1
Institutions:
1The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
Excessive drinking episodes are linked to adverse health outcomes, including assaults, hospitalization, impaired driving, changes in brain function, and cognitive deficits(White & Hingson, 2013). Prior neuroimaging studies demonstrate that excessive drinking is associated with altered BOLD response, such that people who engage in excessive drinking show altered resting-state connectivity compared to abstinent or light drinkers. A recurrent interpretation of this difference is a compensatory response that relies on regional scaffolding in response to neural damage caused by drinking (Rodríguez et al., 2024). This hypothesis comes from the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition, which proposes a natural increase in the BOLD response with age (Reuter-Lorenz & Park, 2014), which is proposed to compensate for the declining integrity of neural structures and function. The STAC-revised theory proposes that factors such as excessive drinking may result in neural resource depletion (Reuter-Lorenz & Park, 2014). A systematic literature review found connectivity to be different between multiple drinking groups; however, most studies did not consider the effects of age (Rodríguez et al., 2024). Given the potential importance of age in studies examining drinkers, we sought to examine the moderating effects of age on resting state connectivity differences between individuals with an alcohol use disorder and a social drinking control group.
Methods:
55 participants (31 individuals with an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and 24 social-drinkers(SD)) were recruited. Participants completed an MRI session on a Siemens Trio TIM 3T with a 32-channel head coil array. T1-weighted images were acquired using a multiecho magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo sequence (TR/TE/TI = 2530/5.36/1200 milliseconds, flip angle = 7°, matrix size = 256×256; 192 slices; voxel size = 1-mm isotropic). The resting state functional scan was acquired using a gradient echo simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) EPI sequence (TR/TE = 460/29 ms; flip angle =44 degrees; multi-band acceleration factor =8, matrix size=82 ×82; 56 axial slices, voxel size =3 mm isotropic, phase encoding direction =AP, bandwidth =2772 Hz/Px); the total scan time was ~5 minutes. Initial preprocessing was performed in fMRIPrep and smoothing, denoising, and bandpass filtering (0.008 - 0.09Hz) were completed using the CONN toolbox. Functional connectivity strength was represented by Fisher-transformed bivariate correlation coefficients from a weighted general linear model-modeling the association between their BOLD signal timeseries. Group-level analyses were performed using a General Linear Model (GLM). Cluster-level inferences were based on parametric statistics from Gaussian Random Field theory. Results were threshold using a combination of a cluster-forming p < 0.001 voxel-level threshold and a familywise corrected p-FDR < 0.05 cluster-size threshold. We predicted the seed-based connectivity values using group membership (AUD;SD) as a predictor and age as a moderator.
Results:
For participants in the AUD-group, age positively moderated the rs connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus (l-MFG) and l-amygdala, the l-MFG and l-hippocampus, and the anterior temporal fusiform gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus; connectivity values were higher than the SD group in all cases.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate a moderation of age on the rs connectivity of regions previously associated with excessive drinking. Increased connectivity with the MFG among heavier drinking groups has been reported in multiple studies (Rodríguez et al., 2024). The current results demonstrating an age moderation effect may provide additional support for the STAC-revised model that suggests compensatory scaffolding given the detrimental effects of alcohol. Future studies should examine this relationship on a sample with a broader age range.
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI) 2
Task-Independent and Resting-State Analysis 1
Keywords:
Aging
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Neurological
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Resting state
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Yes
Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified?
Please note: Failure to have IRB, if applicable will lead to automatic rejection of abstract.
Yes, I have IRB or AUCC approval
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Structural MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Other, Please list
-
CONN, Fmriprep pipeline
Provide references using APA citation style.
Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., & Park, D. C. (2014). How Does it STAC Up? Revisiting the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition. Neuropsychology Review, 24(3), 355–370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-014-9270-9
Rodríguez, G. C., Russell, M. A., & Claus, E. D. (2024). Systematic review on resting-state fMRI in people with AUD and people who binge drink. Molecular Psychiatry, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02796-y
White, A., & Hingson, R. (2013). The burden of alcohol use: Excessive alcohol consumption and related consequences among college students. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 35(2), 201–218.
No