Abstract
Alcohol dependence is associated with poor sleep quality, which has both been implicated with thalamocortical circuits function. To identify the possible roles of these circuits in the alcohol‐sleep association, we investigated the volume of both left and right thalamus and corresponding resting‐state functional connectivity (RSFC) differences between 15 alcohol‐dependent patients (AD) and 15 healthy controls (HC) male participants. The neuroimaging findings were then correlated with clinical variables, that is, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Additionally, mediation analysis was carried out to test whether the thalamocortical RSFC mediates the relationship between drinking behavior and sleep impairments in AD when applicable. We observed a significant positive correlation between AUDIT score and PSQI score in AD. Compared with HC, AD showed reduced RSFC between the left thalamus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and right caudate. We also observed a negative correlation between RSFC of the left thalamus–mPFC and PSQI score in AD. More importantly, the left thalamus–mPFC RSFC strength mediated the relationship between AUDIT score and PSQI score in AD. No significant difference was detected in the normalized volume of both left and right thalamus, and volumes were not significantly correlated with clinical variables. Our results demonstrate that AD show abnormal interactions within thalamocortical circuits in association with drinking behaviors and sleep impairments. It is hoped that our study focusing on thalamocortical circuits could provide new information on potential novel therapeutic targets for treatment of sleep impairment in alcohol‐dependent patients.
Highlights
Alcohol dependence is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a compulsive drive toward alcohol consumption and inability to inhibit its consumption despite negative consequences
The thalamus acts by inducing, maintaining, and advancing nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep assisted by melatonin which acts by promoting spindle formation (Jan et al, 2009)
We revealed that the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) strength of the left thalamus–medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) pathway partly mediated the relationship between Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score (a × b = 0.272, p = .853; c0 = 0.523, p < .001; Figure 4)
Summary
Alcohol dependence is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a compulsive drive toward alcohol consumption and inability to inhibit its consumption despite negative consequences. High alcohol consumption is associated with decreases in rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, sleep continuity and sleep efficiency, and increases in sleep latency (time to fall asleep) and sleep duration (Chaput, McNeil, Després, Bouchard, & Tremblay, 2012) These disturbances have caused serious impacts on the overall health and social wellbeing of the individual. Thalamocortical neurons are essential for thalamocortical information transfer and regulation of arousal and sleep (Del Felice, Formaggio, Storti, Fiaschi, & Manganotti, 2012; Krone et al, 2017) These findings led us to hypothesize that thalamus centered RSFC mediates alcohol dependence and sleep impairment in AD patients. We hoped that by linking circuit-level interactions between brain regions (especially the thalamus and PFC) to particular dimensions of behavioral dysfunction, we could shed new light on the neural associations of sleep impairment in AD patients
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
