Midline Thalamic Damage Associated with Alcohol-Use Disorders: Disruption of Distinct Thalamocortical Pathways and Function

Savage, Lisa M.; Nunes, Polliana Toledo; Gursky, Zachary H; Milbocker, Katrina A; Klintsova, Anna Y.

doi:10.1007/s11065-020-09450-8

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 261 publications

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“…In the study of Savage LM.et al (2022) [12] using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scanning, the authors evaluated the effects of (1) neonatal alcohol exposure and (2) an adolescent exercise intervention on the corpus callosum myelination in an animal model of FASD. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scanning is a powerful tool that allows for the non-invasive longitudinal assessment of structural alterations in myelination.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

Pop‐Jordanova

Demerdzieva

2022

Prilozi

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The world over, people drink in order to socialize, celebrate, and relax, despite the negative health effects of alcohol. Three periods of dynamic brain changes are evidenced to be particularly sensitive to the harmful effects of alcohol: gestation (from conception to birth), later adolescence (15-19 years), and older adulthood (over 65 years). This article is concentrated only on the negative effects of alcohol in children who have been exposed to alcohol before birth, known as foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). This is a review based on published data in PubMed over the last two decades and is an analysis of more than 150 published papers. Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and a range of lifelong physical, behavioural, and intellectual disabilities. The effects of ethanol are expressed on a set of molecules involved in neuroinflammation, myelination, neurotransmission, and neuron function. Modern neuroimaging techniques are able to specify some fine structural changes in the affected areas of the brain: volume reductions in the frontal lobe, including the middle frontal gyri in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampal structure, interhemispheric connectivity, abnormalities in glial cells, white matter deficits etc. Corpus callosum myelination is affected, resulting in a lack of the inter-hemispheric connectivity. This is known to facilitate autism, stroke, schizophrenia, as well as dementia, disrupts cognitive performance, and may lead to neurobehavioral deficits. It was pointed out that many symptoms and neuroimaging characteristics are similar in ADHD and FAS, thus the anamnesis for prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure must be taken very seriously in order to better understand and interpret clinical symptoms.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

Pop‐Jordanova

Demerdzieva

2022

Prilozi

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“…Two studies showed smaller hippocampal subfield volumes in the CA1, CA4, subiculum, presubiculum, body, and tail region in youth and young adults with PAE compared to unexposed controls (Roediger et al, 2021; Solar et al, 2022). Animal models of PAE provide further evidence of limbic effects, showing decreased volume in the anterior nuclei group, fewer neurons in the medial nuclei group, and fewer lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) magnocellular neurons of the thalamus (Gursky & Klintsova, 2021; Papia et al, 2010; Savage et al, 2021). Additionally, effects of PAE on the medial nucleus of the central amygdala in animal models increased anxiety‐like or avoidant behaviors, suggesting a link between these volumes and internalizing symptoms (Rouzer & Diaz, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limbic brain subregions associated with mental health symptoms in youth with and without prenatal alcohol exposure

Nakhid,

Patel,

McMorris

et al. 2023

Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research

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BackgroundPrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can result in reduced brain volume and an increased risk of mental health challenges. Limbic brain structures such as the hippocampus, thalamus, and amygdala often exhibit smaller volumes in youth with PAE, and similar volume reductions are observed in unexposed youth with symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia. However, the role of volume reductions in these brain regions in mental health challenges remains unclear for individuals with PAE.MethodsThirty‐four youth with PAE and 72 unexposed youth aged 7–16 years completed a T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging scan. FreeSurfer was used to process and extract volumes for hippocampal subfields, thalamic subnuclei, and amygdalar subnuclei. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC‐2/3‐PRS), the Children's Depression Inventory, and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children. We tested whether limbic subregion volumes differed between youth with and those without PAE and whether volumes were associated with depression and/or anxiety symptoms, controlling for age and gender.ResultsMultiple hippocampal and thalamic subregions, but not amygdalar subnuclei, were smaller in individuals with PAE. Multiple group‐brain interactions were observed for depression symptoms and subregion volumes. Negative associations between anxiety and limbic subregions were observed across groups.ConclusionsThese findings show extensive volume reductions in the hippocampus and thalamus in youth with PAE. PAE also appears to disrupt the association between depression symptoms and limbic subregions in youth, which may have implications for interventions in these individuals. Anxiety symptoms in youth with and without PAE are similarly associated with limbic volumes.

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“…Altered thalamic activation is a central feature of AUDs that has been linked to greater craving (Volkow et al, 1997). Moreover, the thalamus not only sends but also receives and modulates, cortical responses to sensory input (Sherman, 2016) and is linked to poorer executive function in those with AUDs (Savage et al, 2021). As a result, we further hypothesized that relative to neutral, both alcohol and stress cues would be associated with hypoactivation relative to neutral cues in these regions (Blaine et al, 2017, 2020, Seo et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex moderates effects of alcohol and cannabis co‐use on alcohol and stress reactivity

Claus

Blaine

Witkiewitz

et al. 2022

Alcoholism Clin & Exp Res

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Background: Simultaneous or concurrent use (co-use) of alcohol and cannabis is associated with greater use of both substances over time, academic difficulties, more severe substance use consequences, and adverse impacts on cognitive functioning than the use of a single substance or no substance use. This study examined potential neural mechanisms underlying co-use behaviors in comparison to single substance use. Specifically, we compared alcohol cue reactivity and stress-cue reactivity among individuals who reported frequent same-day co-use of alcohol and cannabis and individuals who reported only alcohol use. Methods:The sample included 88 individuals (41 women) who reported only alcohol use and 24 individuals (8 women) who reported co-use of alcohol and cannabis on at least 50% of drinking occasions. All participants completed fMRI stress and alcohol cue reactivity tasks. Because of known sex effects on stress reactivity and alcohol cue reactivity, we tested sex by co-use interactions.Results: During alcohol cue presentation, co-users had less activation in the thalamus and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex than alcohol-only users, effects that were driven by differences in responses to neutral cues. Examination of stress cue reactivity revealed sex by co-use interactions in the lingual gyrus, with women co-users showing a greater difference between negative and neutral cue reactivity than all other groups.In addition, women co-users had greater connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and both the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex during negative cue presentation than the other groups.Conclusions: These results provide preliminary evidence of enhanced stress cue reactivity in individuals reporting co-use of alcohol and cannabis, particularly women co-users.

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Midline Thalamic Damage Associated with Alcohol-Use Disorders: Disruption of Distinct Thalamocortical Pathways and Function

Cited by 10 publications

References 261 publications

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

Limbic brain subregions associated with mental health symptoms in youth with and without prenatal alcohol exposure

Sex moderates effects of alcohol and cannabis co‐use on alcohol and stress reactivity

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