Impaired decision-making and brain shrinkage in alcoholism

AbstractAlcohol-dependent individuals usually favor instant gratification of alcohol use and ignore its long-term negative consequences, reflecting impaired decision-making. According to the somatic marker hypothesis, decision-making abilities are subtended by an extended brain network. As chronic alcohol consumption is known to be associated with brain shrinkage in this network, the present study investigated relationships between brain shrinkage and decision-making impairments in alcohol-dependent individuals early in abstinence using voxel-based morphometry. Thirty patients performed the Iowa Gambling Task and underwent a magnetic resonance imaging investigation (1.5T). Decision-making performances and brain data were compared with those of age-matched healthy controls. In the alcoholic group, a multiple regression analysis was conducted with two predictors (gray matter [GM] volume and decision-making measure) and two covariates (number of withdrawals and duration of alcoholism). Compared with controls, alcoholics had impaired decision-making and widespread reduced gray matter volume, especially in regions involved in decision-making. The regression analysis revealed links between high GM volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right hippocampal formation, and high decision-making scores (P < 0.001, uncorrected). Decision-making deficits in alcoholism may result from impairment of both emotional and cognitive networks.

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Brain activity, regional gray matter loss, and decision-making in multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis Journal ◽

10.1177/1352458517717089 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (9) ◽

pp. 1163-1173 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Martin Weygandt ◽

Katharina Wakonig ◽

Janina Behrens ◽

Lil Meyer-Arndt ◽

Eveline Söder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sclerosis ◽

Decision Making ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Morphometry Analysis ◽

Tightly Coupled ◽

Gray Matter Loss ◽

Choice Period

Background: Decision-making (DM) abilities deteriorate with multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression which impairs everyday life and is thus clinically important. Objective: To investigate the underlying neurocognitive processes and their relation to regional gray matter (GM) loss induced by MS. Methods: We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Iowa Gambling Task to measure DM-related brain activity in 36 MS patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). From this activity, we determined neural parameters of two cognitive stages, a deliberation (“choice”) period preceding a choice and a post-choice (“feedback”) stage reporting decision outcomes. These measures were related to DM separately in intact and damaged GM areas as determined by a voxel-based morphometry analysis. Results: Severely affected patients (with high lesion burden) showed worse DM-learning than HC ( t = −1.75, p = 0.045), moderately affected (low lesion burden) did not. Activity in the choice stage in intact insular ( t = 4.60, pFamily-Wise Error [FWE] corrected = 0.034), anterior cingulate ( t = 4.50, pFWE = 0.044), and dorsolateral prefrontal areas ( t = 4.43, pFWE = 0.049) and in insular areas with GM loss ( t = 3.78, pFWE = 0.011) was positively linked to DM performance across patients with severe tissue damage and HC. Furthermore, activity in intact orbitofrontal areas was positively linked to DM-learning during the feedback stage across these participants ( t = 4.49, pFWE = 0.032). During none of the stages, moderately affected patients showed higher activity than HC, which might have indicated preserved DM due to compensatory activity. Conclusion: We identified dysregulated activity linked to impairment in specific cognitive stages of reward-related DM. The link of brain activity and impaired DM in areas with MS-induced GM loss suggests that this deficit might be tightly coupled to MS neuropathology.

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A preliminary study of gray matter volume differences related to context-dependent and independent decision-making

10.31234/osf.io/k6jpx ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhang Jinbo

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Decision Maker ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Cognitive Bias ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Decision Styles ◽

Context Dependent ◽

Independent Decision

Facing the high degree of uncertainty of the environment, we have evolved two kinds of decision-making styles: context-dependent and context-independent decision. However, the underlying neural basis of these two kinds of decision styles was mostly unknown. Here, the cognitive bias task was applied to split participants into the context-independent decision-maker and context-dependent decision-maker based on the cognitive bias task scores. Then, we used voxel-based morphometry to directly investigate its underlying differences in gray matter volume. We found that the gray matter volume of the prefrontal cortex and parietal regions, such as inferior parietal lobule, was larger in context-dependent decision-makers than that of the context-independent decision-maker.

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Stress-induced anatomical changes in white and gray matter: a review of literature

Medycyna Weterynaryjna ◽

10.21521/mw.6400 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 76 (06) ◽

pp. 6400-2020

Author(s):

IWONA ŁUSZCZEWSKA-SIERAKOWSKA ◽

KAMIL JONAK

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Traumatic Event ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Hippocampal Neurogenesis ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Total Brain Volume ◽

Extreme Stress ◽

Mri Morphometry ◽

The Right

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric abnormality caused by a drastic traumatic event or extreme stress, that exceeds the capability to adapt. There are many papers reporting anatomical brain changes induced by trauma and extreme stress, not only in white matter but in gray matter as well. Extreme stress and trauma are connected with elevation of cortisol level, which may cause damage to the hippocampus and may interfere with the anatomy of the hippocampus as well as its microstructure and cell number. Stress may inhibit the hippocampal neuroregeneration as well as hippocampal neurogenesis and even induce neuronal death within the hippocampus. Diffusor tensor imaging (DTI) is a powerful method enabling the visualization of the microstructure integrity of white matter, to evaluate the changes (rate and directionality) of water diffusion within myelin tracts and provide enhanced images of white matter tracts compared to traditional MRI morphometry images. One can evaluate the differences in white matter using fractional anisotropy (FA), which is a scalar metric of the degree of anisotropy and diffusion direction of water molecules, indicating fiber density, mylination and axon diameter. Many studies report reduced gray matter volume caused by extreme stress or trauma in people both with the diagnosis of PTSD as well as stress-exposed non PTSD in comparison to healthy controls. Studies have revealed reduced volume mostly in the hippocampus but also in regions such as anterior cingulate, corpus callosum, insula, septum pellucidum, subcallosal cortex, amygdala, prefrontal cortex and total brain volume. The right hippocampus may be prone to the effect of stress much more than the left hippocampus. Moreover, comparing trauma-exposed non-PTSD and PTSD participants, they have found volumetric abnormalities only within the right hippocampus among the PTSD group. They suggest an additional pathological process underlying PTSD, connected with the right hippocampus volume.

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Attentional bias to threat and gray mater volume morphology in high anxious individuals

10.1101/2020.10.20.346981 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joshua M. Carlson ◽

Lin Fang

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Parietal Cortex ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Brain Morphology ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Posterior Parietal ◽

The Right

AbstractIn a sample of highly anxious individuals, the relationship between gray matter volume brain morphology and attentional bias to threat was assessed. Participants performed a dot-probe task of attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume was acquired from whole brain structural T1-weighted MRI scans. The results replicate previous findings in unselected samples that elevated attentional bias to threat is linked to greater gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, middle frontal gyrus, and striatum. In addition, we provide novel evidence that elevated attentional bias to threat is associated with greater gray matter volume in the right posterior parietal cortex, cerebellum, and other distributed regions. Lastly, exploratory analyses provide initial evidence that distinct sub-regions of the right posterior parietal cortex may contribute to attentional bias in a sex-specific manner. Our results illuminate how differences in gray matter volume morphology relate to attentional bias to threat in anxious individuals. This knowledge could inform neurocognitive models of anxiety-related attentional bias to threat and targets of neuroplasticity in anxiety interventions such as attention bias modification.

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Serial longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging data indicate non-linear regional gray matter volume recovery in abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals

Addiction Biology ◽

10.1111/adb.12180 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 956-967 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Timothy C. Durazzo ◽

Anderson Mon ◽

Stefan Gazdzinski ◽

Ping-Hong Yeh ◽

Dieter J. Meyerhoff

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Imaging Data ◽

Resonance Imaging ◽

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Volume Recovery ◽

Alcohol Dependent

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Emotion-Based Decision Making in schizophrenia: evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task

Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale ◽

10.1017/s1121189x0000097x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 104-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Marcella Bellani ◽

Luisa Tomelleri ◽

Paolo Brambilla

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Neural System ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Emotional States ◽

Human Beings ◽

Complex Process ◽

Social Conduct ◽

Contextual Stimuli

The decision making can be defined as the mental process in which a “choice is made after reflecting on the consequences of that choice” (Bechara & Van Der Linden, 2005; Bechara et al., 1997). It is a complex process that involves cognitive as well as emotion-based functions. In fact human beings make fast adaptive decisions in daily life, and that is based on the skill to relate emotion to contextual stimuli in order to anticipate outcomes through activation of emotional states (Bechara et al., 2005). In this regard, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) has been widely recognized to play a key role in the emotional decision making process. The VMPFC includes the medial part of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the more ventral sectors of the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (Bechara et al., 1997). In particular the OFC, within the VMPFC, is part of a neural system underpinning decision-making and reward-related behaviours which are thought to be linked to social conduct (Rolls, 2000).

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Income is associated with hippocampal/amygdala and education with cingulate cortex grey matter volume

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-75809-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

M. Lotze ◽

M. Domin ◽

C. O. Schmidt ◽

N. Hosten ◽

H. J. Grabe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Life Outcomes ◽

Matter Volume ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Income and education are both elements of a person’s socioeconomic status, which is predictive of a broad range of life outcomes. The brain’s gray matter volume (GMV) is influenced by socioeconomic status and mediators related to an unhealthy life style. We here investigated two independent general population samples comprising 2838 participants (all investigated with the same MRI-scanner) with regard to the association of indicators of the socioeconomic status and gray matter volume. Voxel-based morphometry without prior hypotheses revealed that years of education were positively associated with GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex and net-equivalent income with gray matter volume in the hippocampus/amygdala region. Analyses of possible mediators (alcohol, cigarettes, body mass index (BMI), stress) revealed that the relationship between income and GMV in the hippocampus/amygdala region was partly mediated by self-reported stressors, and the association of years of education with GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex by BMI. These results corrected for whole brain effects (and therefore not restricted to certain brain areas) do now offer possibilities for more detailed hypotheses-driven approaches.

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