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Brain volumes in alcohol use disorder : Do females and males differ? A whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging mega-analysis
Maggioni, Eleonora Rossetti, Maria G. Allen, Nicholas B. Batalla, Albert Bellani, Marcella Chye, Yann Cousijn, Janna Goudriaan, Anna E. Hester, Robert Hutchison, Kent
Maggioni, Eleonora
Rossetti, Maria G.
Allen, Nicholas B.
Batalla, Albert
Bellani, Marcella
Chye, Yann
Cousijn, Janna
Goudriaan, Anna E.
Hester, Robert
Hutchison, Kent
Author
Maggioni, Eleonora
Rossetti, Maria G.
Allen, Nicholas B.
Batalla, Albert
Bellani, Marcella
Chye, Yann
Cousijn, Janna
Goudriaan, Anna E.
Hester, Robert
Hutchison, Kent
Li, Chiang-Shan R.
Martin-Santos, Rocio
Momenan, Reza
Sinha, Rajita
Schmaal, Lianne
Solowij, Nadia
Suo, Chao
van Holst, Ruth J.
Veltman, Dick J.
Yücel, Murat
Thompson, Paul M.
Conrod, Patricia
Mackey, Scott
Garavan, Hugh
Brambilla, Paolo
Lorenzetti, Valentina
Rossetti, Maria G.
Allen, Nicholas B.
Batalla, Albert
Bellani, Marcella
Chye, Yann
Cousijn, Janna
Goudriaan, Anna E.
Hester, Robert
Hutchison, Kent
Li, Chiang-Shan R.
Martin-Santos, Rocio
Momenan, Reza
Sinha, Rajita
Schmaal, Lianne
Solowij, Nadia
Suo, Chao
van Holst, Ruth J.
Veltman, Dick J.
Yücel, Murat
Thompson, Paul M.
Conrod, Patricia
Mackey, Scott
Garavan, Hugh
Brambilla, Paolo
Lorenzetti, Valentina
Abstract
Emerging evidence suggests distinct neurobiological correlates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) between sexes, which however remain largely unexplored. This work from ENIGMA Addiction Working Group aimed to characterize the sex differences in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) correlates of AUD using a whole-brain, voxelbased, multi-tissue mega-analytic approach, thereby extending our recent surfacebased region of interest findings on a nearly matching sample using a complementary methodological approach. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 653 people with AUD and 326 controls was analyzed using voxel-based morphometry. The effects of group, sex, group-by-sex, and substance use severity in AUD on brain volumes were assessed using General Linear Models. Individuals with AUD relative to controls had lower GM volume in striatal, thalamic, cerebellar, and widespread cortical clusters. Group-by-sex effects were found in cerebellar GM and WM volumes, which were more affected by AUD in females than males. Smaller groupby- sex effects were also found in frontotemporal WM tracts, which were more affected in AUD females, and in temporo-occipital and midcingulate GM volumes, which were more affected in AUD males. AUD females but not males showed a negative association between monthly drinks and precentral GM volume. Our results suggest that AUD is associated with both shared and distinct widespread effects on GM and WM volumes in females and males. This evidence advances our previous region of interest knowledge, supporting the usefulness of adopting an exploratory perspective and the need to include sex as a relevant moderator variable in AUD.
Keywords
alcohol dependence, alcohol use disorders, MRI, sex, voxel-based morphometry
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Human Brain Mapping
Book
Volume
44
Issue
Page Range
4652-4666
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2023 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.