Heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption shows similar negative associations with brain structure. To address this, we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds. Consistent with prior literature, we find negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure. Specifically, alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure. Here, we show that the negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two daily alcohol units, and become stronger as alcohol intake increases.
How well do we remember popular music? To investigate how hit songs are recognized over time, we randomly selected number-one Billboard singles from the last 76 years and presented them to a large sample of mostly millennial participants. In response to hearing each song, participants were prompted to indicate whether they recognized it. Plotting the recognition proportion for each song as a function of the year during which it reached peak popularity resulted in three distinct phases in collective memory. The first phase is characterized by a steep linear drop-off in recognition for the music from this millennium; the second phase consists of a stable plateau during the 1960s to the 1990s; and the third phase, a further but more gradual drop-off during the 1940s and 1950s. More than half of recognition variability can be accounted for by self-selected exposure to each song as measured by its play count on Spotify. We conclude that collective memory for popular music is different from that of other historical phenomena.
Alcohol consumption can have significant deleterious consequences, including brain atrophy, neuronal loss, poorer white matter fiber integrity, and cognitive decline, but the effects of lightto-moderate alcohol consumption on brain structure remain unclear. Here we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using structural, diffusion tensor, and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging data from 19,825 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank. Systematically controlling for potential confounds, we found that greater alcohol consumption was associated with lower global gray and white matter volume, regional gray matter volume in cortical and subcortical areas, and white matter fiber integrity and complexity. Post hoc analyses revealed that these associations were non-linear. Our findings extensively characterize the associations between alcohol intake and gray and white matter macrostructure and microstructure. Consuming two or more units of alcohol per day, equivalent to one drink in some establishments, could have negative effects on brain health, an important public health finding.Converging lines of research provide compelling evidence that chronic, excessive alcohol consumption is associated with global brain atrophy and regional brain changes. [1][2][3] Recent meta-analyses of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings show that individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have less global white matter volume (WMV) 4 and less gray matter volume (GMV) -both globally and locally in corticostriatal-limbic regions 5 -than healthy controls.Further, in a meta-analysis of pooled, multinational datasets from 33 imaging sites, individuals with AUD had lower local thickness and surface area of the hippocampus, thalamus, putamen, and amygdala than controls. 6In studies using diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI), which allows a non-invasive investigation of white matter microstructure via measures of water molecule diffusion, individuals with AUD had lower fractional anisotropy (FA; the directional coherence of water molecule diffusion) and greater mean diffusivity (MD; the magnitude of water molecule diffusion) in the corpus callosum, frontal forceps, internal and external capsules, fornix, superior cingulate, and longitudinal fasciculi than controls. 1,7 However, because conventional dMRI measures (FA and MD) are based on a simplistic model of brain tissue microstructure, they fail to account for the complexities of neurite geometry. 8 For example, the lower FA observed in individuals with AUD 1,7 may reflect lower neurite density and/or greater orientation dispersion of neurites, which conventional dMRI measures do not differentiate. 9,10 A key question raised by prior findings in individuals with AUD that remains is whether, similar to heavy drinking, light-to-moderate alcohol consumption adversely affects brain structure. Further, is the relationship between alcohol intake and brain structure linear? In some studies of middle-aged and older adults, moderate alcoh...
Background: The preclinical literature identifies the ventral striatum (VS) as a key player in drug-conditioned responses, guiding hypotheses examining neural substrates involved in human drug cue reactivity, including the study of sex differences. Men show a replicable response that includes the VS, while women's responses have been weaker and variable. New evidence suggests that the hormonal milieu modulates women's responses to drug cues in the dorsal striatum (DS), specifically, in the putamen. Here we tested the hypothesis that the hormonal milieu affects neural responses to smoking cues (SCs) in the putamen in women cigarette smokers. Methods: We reexamined our three previous neuroimaging studies of the influence of sex and menstrual cycle (MC) phase effects on SC neuroactivity, incorporating the DS as a region of interest. Results: As previously shown, men exhibited increased ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and VS/V pallidum responses, and women showed increased vmPFC responses that were greater in women during the follicular phase (high estradiol), compared to the luteal phase (high progesterone). Reducing the statistical threshold within luteal phase women revealed select deactivation of the putamen. Conclusions: These preliminary findings shed light upon factors that may modulate drug cue reactivity in women, specifically the influence of hormones on DS responses. Emerging literature suggests that manipulating the hormonal milieu may open a fundamental window into sex-specific treatment targets. More rigorous study of the brain substrates involved in drug cue reactivity and
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