Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank
Alcohol consumption is one of the leading contributors to the global burden of disease. It has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. Specifically, neuroimaging studies have shown that chronic heavy alcohol consumption (those with alcohol use disorder) is associated with micro- and macro- structural changes in frontal, diencephalic, hippocampal, and cerebellar structures. Heavy alcohol consumption is also associated with lower gray matter volume (GMV) in corticostriatal-limbic circuits and white matter (WM) microstructural alterations in places such as the corpus callosum. Despite these findings, there is conflicting evidence about how light-to-moderate alcohol (those without alcohol use disorder) consumption affects brain structures and whether it causes similar negative effects as heavy alcohol consumption. The current study examines the associations between alcohol intake and measures of gray matter (GM) structure and WM microstructure in the brain.
Using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 middle-aged and older adults of European descent from the UK BioBank, GMV and white matter volume (WMV) in males and females were normalized separately for head size against age and alcohol intake. This data was then plotted using linear regression. Negative relationships between alcohol intake and global gray and white matter measures were observed. These negative associations were also detected in individuals who consume between 1 and 2 alcohol units daily. From these findings, we can conclude that one alcoholic drink daily (or two units of alcohol) could be associated with changes in GMV and WMV in the brain. The negative associations between alcohol intake and structural changes were also examined for both sexes. Results showed that there were no interactive effects between alcohol intake and sex on the brain. Although nearly 90% of all regional GMVs showed significant negative associations with alcohol intake, the most affected regions were the frontal, parietal, and insular cortices, with changes also in temporal and cingulate regions.
The full article can be accessed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28735-5
Daviet, R., Aydogan, G., Jagannathan, K., Spilka, N., Koellinger, P. D., Kranzler, H. R., Nave, G., & Wetherill, R. R. (2022). Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1175–1175