The brain activity pattern in alcohol-use disorders under inhibition response Task

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Inhibitory control deficits are common in alcohol use disorder (AUD), suggesting chronic alcohol use impacts brain function.
• Existing research on brain dysfunction related to response inhibition in AUD lacks consistency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify consistent patterns of brain dysfunction associated with response inhibition in individuals with AUD.
• To quantitatively analyze brain activation differences between AUD patients and healthy controls (HCs).

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature searches were conducted across major scientific databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsychINFO).
• Anisotropic effect-size signed differential mapping was employed for quantitative analysis of brain activation.
• Meta-regression explored the link between observed brain alterations and clinical variables.

Main Results:

• AUD patients exhibited hypoactivation or hyperactivation in the prefrontal cortex (superior, inferior, middle frontal gyri), anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC), superior temporal gyrus, occipital gyrus, and somatosensory areas (postcentral gyrus, supramarginal gyrus).
• Meta-regression indicated that older AUD patients were more prone to show activation in the left superior frontal gyrus during response inhibition tasks.

Conclusions:

• Prefrontal-cingulate cortex dysfunction in AUD may underlie core impairments in cognitive control.
• Dysfunction in occipital and somatosensory areas suggests potential motor-sensory and visual deficits in AUD.
• These functional abnormalities likely represent neurophysiological correlates of executive deficits observed in AUD.