Decreased brain connectivity in smoking contrasts with increased connectivity in drinking

Abstract

In a group of 831 participants from the general population in the Human Connectome Project, smokers exhibited low overall functional connectivity, and more specifically of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex which is associated with non-reward mechanisms, the adjacent inferior frontal gyrus, and the precuneus. Participants who drank a high amount had overall increases in resting state functional connectivity, and specific increases in reward-related systems including the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the cingulate cortex. Increased impulsivity was found in smokers, associated with decreased functional connectivity of the non-reward-related lateral orbitofrontal cortex; and increased impulsivity was found in high amount drinkers, associated with increased functional connectivity of the reward-related medial orbitofrontal cortex. The main findings were cross-validated in an independent longitudinal dataset with 1176 participants, IMAGEN. Further, the functional connectivities in 14-year-old non-smokers (and also in female low-drinkers) were related to who would smoke or drink at age 19. An implication is that these differences in brain functional connectivities play a role in smoking and drinking, together with other factors.

Maximizing dissimilarity in resting state detects heterogeneous subtypes in healthy population associated with high substance use and problems in antisocial personality

“…Similarly, individuals with alcohol use disorder, (Chanraud, Pitel, Pfefferbaum, & Sullivan, 2011) reported desynchronized low frequency rs-fMRI signals from the PCC and cerebellum. Nicotine (a key ingredient of tobacco) was also associated with decreased activity in the regions of DMN (Tanabe et al, 2011) and low overall functional connectivity (Cheng et al, 2019). From the vast pool of scientific studies, it can be inferred that tobacco and drugs intake, along with marijuana and alcohol use are associated with differences in rs time courses (Cheng et al, 2014), and are possibly making adolescents more vulnerable to psychiatric and other disorders (Thijssen et al, 2017).…”

Maximizing Dissimilarity in Resting State detects Heterogeneous Subtypes in Healthy population associated with High Substance-Use and Problems in Antisocial Personality

“…Nicotine (a key ingredient of tobacco) was also associated with decreased activity in the regions of DMN (Tanabe et al, 2011) and low overall functional connectivity (Cheng et al, 2019). From the vast pool of scientific studies, it can be inferred that tobacco and drugs intake, along with marijuana and alcohol use are associated with differences in resting state time courses (Cheng et al, 2014), and are possibly making adolescents more vulnerable to psychiatric and other disorders (Thijssen et al, 2017).…”

Making the connection between alcohol abuse and smoking

“…4 The medial OFC mediates internal control of mood and neurovegetative functions 3 (symptoms such as weight change, insomnia and fatigue) and seems to be mediate reward. 8 The lateral OFC seems to mediate empathic and socially appropriate behaviour; integrates the relationship between an external object and affect (emotional response), and responds to numerous punishing and unpleasant stimuli (such as bad smells and losing money) as well as to not receiving an expected reward. 3,4 Brain scans, for example, show activation of the human lateral OFC when the subject does not obtain an expected reward.…”

“…The study found that smokers and drinkers had contrasting patterns of cortical functional connectivity involving the OFC. 8…”