Differences in White Matter Microstructure Integrity between Heavy and Light Drinkers
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Seider, Nicole
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
- Abstract
- A common characteristic of individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) is impulsive behavior, as quantified by a Delay Discounting (DD) task; those with AUDs are more likely to choose smaller, sooner rewards relative to control participants. This tendency is also observed among heavy, subclinical drinkers, and emerging adults (ages 18-25). DD can be reduced in healthy controls by visualizing oneself in the future (episodic prospection); the magnitude of this behavioral change positively correlates with functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and the medial anterior temporal cortex. We hypothesized that the structural connectivity between these regions may vary as a function of age and of alcohol use, specifically in the cingulum, uncinate, and fornix white matter tracts. Secondly, we hypothesized that age and alcohol use would also associate with structural differences in frontal and medial anterior temporal lobe gray matter and striatal subcortical structures. In a sample of 84 healthy subjects (ages 18-40; 52.38% Female), we found significant effects of current alcohol consumption, current binge drinking, and binge drinking before age 21 on the white matter microstructure of bilateral cingulum and uncinate. We observed no statistically significant effects of alcohol use on the cortical and subcortical regions analyzed. Our findings suggest a stronger association of subclinical binge drinking with the microstructure integrity of the white matter bundles connecting frontal and temporal lobes than with the structural properties of the cortical and subcortical regions themselves.
- Date of publication
- spring 2015
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- DOI
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- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: David Bray Peele Memorial Research Award
- Advisor
- Boettiger, Charlotte
- Degree
- Bachelor of Science
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 58
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