Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing condition characterized by excessive alcohol consumption despite its multifaceted adverse consequences, associated with impaired performance in several cognitive domains including decision-making. While choice deficits represent a core component of addictive behavior, possibly consecutive to brain changes preceding the onset of the addiction cycle, the evidence on grey-matter and white-matter damage underlying abnormal choices in AUD is still limited. To fill this gap, we assessed the neurostructural bases of decision-making performance in 22 early-abstinent alcoholic patients and 18 controls, by coupling the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging metrics of grey-matter density and white-matter integrity. Regardless of group, voxel based morphometry highlighted an inverse relationship between deliberation time and grey-matter density, with alcoholics displaying slower choices related to grey-matter atrophy in key nodes of the motor control network. In particular, grey-matter density in the supplementary motor area, reduced in alcoholic patients, explained a significant amount of variability in their increased deliberation time. Tract-based spatial statistics revealed a significant relationship between CGT deliberation time and all white-matter indices, involving the most relevant commissural, projection and associative tracts. The lack of choice impairments other than increased deliberation time highlights reduced processing speed, mediated both by grey-matter and white-matter alterations, as a possible marker of a generalized executive impairment extending to the output stages of decision-making. These results pave the way to further studies aiming to tailor novel rehabilitation strategies and assess their functional outcomes.

Galandra, C., Crespi, C., Basso, G., Manera, M., Giorgi, I., Poggi, P., et al. (2021). Decreased information processing speed and decision-making performance in alcohol use disorder: combined neurostructural evidence from VBM and TBSS. BRAIN IMAGING AND BEHAVIOR, 15(1), 205-215 [10.1007/s11682-019-00248-8].

Decreased information processing speed and decision-making performance in alcohol use disorder: combined neurostructural evidence from VBM and TBSS

Basso G.;
2021

Abstract

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing condition characterized by excessive alcohol consumption despite its multifaceted adverse consequences, associated with impaired performance in several cognitive domains including decision-making. While choice deficits represent a core component of addictive behavior, possibly consecutive to brain changes preceding the onset of the addiction cycle, the evidence on grey-matter and white-matter damage underlying abnormal choices in AUD is still limited. To fill this gap, we assessed the neurostructural bases of decision-making performance in 22 early-abstinent alcoholic patients and 18 controls, by coupling the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging metrics of grey-matter density and white-matter integrity. Regardless of group, voxel based morphometry highlighted an inverse relationship between deliberation time and grey-matter density, with alcoholics displaying slower choices related to grey-matter atrophy in key nodes of the motor control network. In particular, grey-matter density in the supplementary motor area, reduced in alcoholic patients, explained a significant amount of variability in their increased deliberation time. Tract-based spatial statistics revealed a significant relationship between CGT deliberation time and all white-matter indices, involving the most relevant commissural, projection and associative tracts. The lack of choice impairments other than increased deliberation time highlights reduced processing speed, mediated both by grey-matter and white-matter alterations, as a possible marker of a generalized executive impairment extending to the output stages of decision-making. These results pave the way to further studies aiming to tailor novel rehabilitation strategies and assess their functional outcomes.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Alcohol use disorder; Decision-making; Diffusion tensor imaging; Rehabilitation; Voxel based morphometry;
English
2-mar-2020
2021
15
1
205
215
none
Galandra, C., Crespi, C., Basso, G., Manera, M., Giorgi, I., Poggi, P., et al. (2021). Decreased information processing speed and decision-making performance in alcohol use disorder: combined neurostructural evidence from VBM and TBSS. BRAIN IMAGING AND BEHAVIOR, 15(1), 205-215 [10.1007/s11682-019-00248-8].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/272293
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