Neural correlates of alcohol use disorder severity among nontreatment‐seeking heavy drinkers: An examination of the incentive salience and negative emotionality domains of the alcohol and addiction research domain criteria

Abstract

Background The Alcohol and Addiction Research Domain Criteria (AARDoC) propose that alcohol use disorder is associated with neural dysfunction in three primary domains: incentive salience, negative emotionality, and executive function. Prior studies in heavy drinking samples have examined brain activation changes associated with alcohol and negative affect cues, representing the incentive salience and negative emotionality domains, respectively. Yet studies examining such cue‐induced changes in functional connectivity (FC) are relatively sparse. Methods Nontreatment‐seeking heavy drinking adults (N = 149, 56.0% male, 48.6% non‐white, mean age 34.8 years (SD = 10.0)) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during presentation of alcohol, negative, and neutral pictures. We focused on FC changes involving the nucleus accumbens and amygdala in addition to activation and FC correlations with self‐reported AUD severity. Results For alcohol cues versus neutral cues, we observed accumbens FC changes in the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex (PFC), and amygdala FC changes with occipital, parietal, and hippocampal regions. AUD severity correlated positively with activation in the cerebellum (p < 0.05), accumbens FC in the cingulate gyri, somatosensory gyri, and cerebellum (p < 0.05), and with amygdala FC in the PFC and inferior parietal lobule (p < 0.05) for alcohol cues versus neutral cues. For negative cues versus neutral cues, we observed accumbens FC changes in the lateral temporal, occipital, and parietal regions, and amygdala FC changes in the fusiform and lingual gyri (p < 0.05). Conclusions The present findings provide empirical support for the AARDoC domains of incentive salience and negative emotionality and indicate that AUD severity is associated with salience and response control for reward cues. When covarying for differences in nonalcohol substance use and mood disorder diagnoses, AUD severity was also associated with emotional reactivity for negative cues.

A scoping review of electroencephalographic (EEG) markers for tracking neurophysiological changes and predicting outcomes in substance use disorder treatment

“…Such deep phenotyping is also in line with multi-method/multi-level transdiagnostic frameworks such as NIMH Research Domain Criteria (Cuthbert, 2022 ). Addictions Neuroclinical Assessment factors (Kwako et al, 2017 ; Nieto et al, 2021 ), and Addiction Research Domain Criteria (Al-Khalil et al, 2021 ). Several past reviews (Houston and Schlienz, 2018 ; Jurado-Barba et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2021b ) summarized SUD-EEG links within these organizing frameworks, linking EEG/ERP metrics to salience (N1, P1, P3/SP, theta); inhibitory control/conflict monitoring/executive (ERN)/NG-N2/P3); and negative emotionality/motivated attention : (LPP, theta, face-elicited P1/N1/N170).…”

Frontal tDCS reduces alcohol relapse rates by increasing connections from left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to addiction networks

“…Causal models showed that LDLPFC stimulation had direct influence on within-network RSFC in the IS and NE addiction networks. These results are promising evidence of the modulatory effects of non-invasive neuromodulation on top-down RSFC, specifically from a key executive control cortical region (DLPFC) to key addiction networks involved in reward processing and emotion regulation [50–52].…”

“…All MRI data were acquired from a 3T Siemens Prisma scanner at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR). Acquisition parameters closely matched those created by the Human Connectome Project (HCP)[48–50]. Images collected: a T1-weighted MPRAGE image [TR=2400ms, TE=2.24ms, slices=208, voxel size=0.8mm3], a T2-weighted SPACE image [TR=3200ms, TE=564ms, slices=208, voxel size=0.8mm3], a pair of opposite phase encoded spin echo EPI scans matched to the resting state fMRI, and a resting state fMRI scan [TR=800ms, TE=37ms, slices=72, volumes=520, voxel size=2.0mm3, multiband factor=8, 7 minutes duration].…”

Advances in the Neurobiology of Food Addiction

“…Some, but not all, prospective and experimental studies have provided support for elevated reward region response to high-calorie food images as a predictor of weight gain [33][34][35][36]. Paralleling these findings, people with substance-use disorders, compared to those without, show greater activation in reward regions of the brain to substance use cues [37,38]. In an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of 87 studies, participants with obesity and those with substance addictions exhibited similar blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI hyperactivity in the amygdala and striatum when processing general rewarding stimuli as well as problematic stimuli (i.e., food-or drug-related stimuli) [39].…”