Changes in functional connectivity of ventral anterior cingulate cortex in heroin abusers.
- Author:
Wei WANG
1
;
Ya-rong WANG
;
Wei QIN
;
Kai YUAN
;
Jie TIAN
;
Qiang LI
;
Lan-ying YANG
;
Lin LU
;
You-min GUO
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH: Adult; Female; Gyrus Cinguli; pathology; physiopathology; Heroin Dependence; physiopathology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged
- From: Chinese Medical Journal 2010;123(12):1582-1588
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUNDPrevious studies with animal experiments, autopsy, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and task-related functional MRI (fMRI) have confirmed that brain functional connectivity in addicts has become impaired. The goal of this study was to investigate the alteration of resting-state functional connectivity of the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) in the heroin abusers' brain.
METHODSFifteen heroin abusers and fifteen matched healthy volunteers were studied using vACC as the region-of interest (ROI) seed. A 3.0 T scanner with a standard head coil was the imagining apparatus. T2*-weighted gradient-echo planar imaging (GRE-EPI) was the scanning protocol. A ROI seed based correlation analysis used a SPM5 software package as the tool for all images processing.
RESULTSThis study showed a functional connection to the insula vACC in heroin abusers. Compared with controls, heroin users showed decreased functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and vACC, between the parahippocampala gyrus/amgdala (PHC/amygdala) and vACC, between the thalamus and vACC, and between the posterior cingulated cortex/precuneus (PCC/pC) and vACC.
CONCLUSIONThe altered resting-state functional connectivity to the vACC suggests the neural circuitry on which the addictive drug has an affect and reflects the dysfunction of the addictive brain.