Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a major public health concern, yet its neural underpinnings remain incompletely understood. In a new systematic review, researchers from the TRR265 research consortium synthesized findings from 39 studies on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in AUD. By analyzing whole-brain connectivity patterns, they identified consistent alterations in key regions, including the middle and superior frontal gyri, anterior cingulate cortex, and insula, which are crucial for executive control, emotional regulation, and reward processing.
To provide a structured overview of the field, the authors generated relevance maps, highlighting brain regions and connections most frequently associated with AUD across studies. These maps offer a quantitative framework for understanding how AUD affects brain function and serve as a foundation for future research on craving, relapse, and cognitive impairments. Their approach also addresses methodological variability in neuroimaging studies by focusing on whole-brain analyses rather than region-specific (seed-based) methods.
This work, conducted within the TRR265 consortium, provides a valuable resource for addiction neuroscience, emphasizing the need for standardized methods in fMRI research. The findings pave the way for future studies integrating multimodal imaging and longitudinal approaches to further unravel the neural mechanisms of AUD.
🔗 Read the full study: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70156
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