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Published in: Brain Structure and Function 6/2019

01-07-2019 | Original Article

Relations between cognitive and motor deficits and regional brain volumes in individuals with alcoholism

Authors: Rosemary Fama, Anne-Pascale Le Berre, Stephanie A. Sassoon, Natalie M. Zahr, Kilian M. Pohl, Adolf Pfefferbaum, Edith V. Sullivan

Published in: Brain Structure and Function | Issue 6/2019

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Abstract

Despite the common co-occurrence of cognitive impairment and brain structural deficits in alcoholism, demonstration of relations between regional gray matter volumes and cognitive and motor processes have been relatively elusive. In pursuit of identifying brain structural substrates of impairment in alcoholism, we assessed executive functions (EF), episodic memory (MEM), and static postural balance (BAL) and measured regional brain gray matter volumes of cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar structures commonly affected in individuals with alcohol dependence (ALC) compared with healthy controls (CTRL). ALC scored lower than CTRL on all composite scores (EF, MEM, and BAL) and had smaller frontal, cingulate, insular, parietal, and hippocampal volumes. Within the ALC group, poorer EF scores correlated with smaller frontal and temporal volumes; MEM scores correlated with frontal volume; and BAL scores correlated with frontal, caudate, and pontine volumes. Exploratory analyses investigating relations between subregional frontal volumes and composite scores in ALC yielded different patterns of associations, suggesting that different neural substrates underlie these functional deficits. Of note, orbitofrontal volume was a significant predictor of memory scores, accounting for almost 15% of the variance; however, this relation was evident only in ALC with a history of a non-alcohol substance diagnosis and not in ALC without a non-alcohol substance diagnosis. The brain-behavior relations observed provide evidence that the cognitive and motor deficits in alcoholism are likely a result of different neural systems and support the hypothesis that a number of identifiable neural systems rather than a common or diffuse neural pathway underlies cognitive and motor deficits observed in chronic alcoholism.
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Metadata
Title
Relations between cognitive and motor deficits and regional brain volumes in individuals with alcoholism
Authors
Rosemary Fama
Anne-Pascale Le Berre
Stephanie A. Sassoon
Natalie M. Zahr
Kilian M. Pohl
Adolf Pfefferbaum
Edith V. Sullivan
Publication date
01-07-2019
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Brain Structure and Function / Issue 6/2019
Print ISSN: 1863-2653
Electronic ISSN: 1863-2661
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01894-w

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