Investigating Neuropathology of Alcohol Use Disorder Using Simultaneous Neural Responses to Alcohol Cues
Masson, Rylee
Masson, Rylee
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Abstract
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex condition in which vast neural networks are functionally and anatomically impacted. This expansive impact throughout the brain poses a challenge to developing models of AUD in humans. One challenge is the varied impacts of AUD on different brain regions, white matter loss in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), glial cell loss in the hippocampus, and subregional changes in the striatum. Specific regions throughout the cortex and subcortex that are observed to have similar changes in neural response to alcohol cues, could indicate dispersed regions that are similarly modulated by AUD. Region of interest (ROI) mean general linear model (GLM) provides a strong approach to examine neural responses. ROI-mean GLM show voxel-level task effects within anatomically or functionally defined regions while reducing noise effects and giving interpretable comparisons across cortical and subcortical networks. In AUD, this enables the analysis of region-specific alterations in alcohol cue reactivity and linking neural patterns to clinically relevant behaviors. To investigate these neural responses, the ROI-mean GLM activation was examined for 1184 participants (409 females, 790 AUD) spanning across nineteen datasets from the ENIGMA Addiction Working Group. Cortical and subcortical parcellations were integrated by combining the Schaefer 2018 17 Network 400 Parcellation Atlas and the Tian S4 3T 2009cAsym 1mm Atlas. ROI-mean GLM activation was extracted for two contrasts, alcohol cues and alcohol minus neutral cues. This allows for assessment of absolute regional activation and stimulus-specific reactivity. Taking the mean ROI GLM activation minimizes voxel noise and allows for analysis on both cortical and subcortical regions. The caudate, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus and subregions of the prefrontal cortex had synchronous changes in neural activity in response to alcohol cues. This aligns with existing literature demonstrating the involvement of these regions in AUD, and characterizing neuropathology of AUD as neural network reorganization.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Graduate Student
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Poster
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Interdisciplinary Studies in Education
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CESS
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Life Science