Acute alcohol intake alters resting state functional connectivity of nucleus accumbens with pain-related corticolimbic structures

Abstract

Background-The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a ventral striatal structure underlying reward, reinforcement, and motivation, with extensive anatomic and functional connections to a wide range of affective processing structures (medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala, and insula). Characterizing how acute alcohol intake affects resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and these regions will improve mechanistic understanding of alcohol's neurobehavioral effects, including the neural overlap between acute alcohol effects and pain processing.Methods-Fifteen healthy social drinkers (10 women; age: 25-45 years) were included in the study. Participants completed one session in which they consumed an alcohol dose targeting a breath alcohol concentration of 0.08 g/dL, and in a second a placebo beverage. Nine-minute resting state fMRI scans were acquired 30-35 minutes after beverage administration during each session. rsFC between NAc and a priori corticolimbic regions of interest (mPFC, amgydala, and insula), were compared between beverage conditions. We also conducted an exploratory wholebrain seed-to-voxel analysis of NAc FC.Results-Alcohol intake reduced rsFC between NAc and mPFC, as well as NAc and amygdala. Alcohol also reduced rsFC between NAc and a 97-voxel cluster including bilateral paracingulate cortex and anterior cingulate cortex.Conclusions-Findings suggest that acute alcohol intake reduces rsFC between NAc and several structures, including mPFC, amygdala, and rostral ACC in healthy social drinkers. These structures underlie reward, motivated behavior, and emotion regulation, and may provide mechanistic insight to how alcohol affects related processes, including pain.

Alcohol‐induced changes in mesostriatal resting‐state functional connectivity are linked to sensation seeking in young adults

“…While previous studies have examined the effects of acute alcohol on rsFC (Boissoneault et al, 2020;Gorka et al, 2018), this work provides novel information indicating that acute alcohol decreases VTA-caudate rsFC. Although the VTA has greater structural connectivity to the nucleus accumbens (Haber & Knutson, 2010), prior studies have demonstrated VTA-caudate connectivity at rest (Murty et al, 2014;Tomasi & Volkow, 2014).…”

Analgesic effects of alcohol in adults with chronic jaw pain

“…between these areas at rest following acute alcohol administration (Boissoneault et al, 2020; but see Han et al, 2021) and in abstinent heavy drinkers during a monetary reward task (Forbes et al, 2014).…”

“…In healthy adults, a pain modulation training protocol that reduced experimental pain sensitivity also reduced resting connectivity between these structures (Sevel et al, 2020). At the same time, alterations in connectivity have been detected between these areas at rest following acute alcohol administration (Boissoneault et al, 2020; but see Han et al, 2021) and in abstinent heavy drinkers during a monetary reward task (Forbes et al, 2014).…”

Parental Education, Ethnicity, and Functional Connectivity between Nucleus Accumbens and Frontoparietal Network

“…The right and left nucleus accumbens (NAcc) are subcortical brain structures, located within the ventral striatum, that serve as a key limbic-motor interface, and have an important role in Pavlovian learning [1,2]. This means that the right and left NAcc contribute to the regulation of emotional and motivation processing [3], incentive salience [4], pleasure, reward, and reinforcement [5]. In addition, neural reactivity to food-and/or drug-related reward cues evokes robust dopamine responses in the right and left NAcc [1].…”