Pathological gambling and cocaine dependence are highly pervasive disorders. Functional neuroimaging evidence implicates aberrant activity of prefrontal striatal pathways in both disorders. It is unclear if the neuroanatomy of these areas is also affected. Participants with pathological gambling (n = 18), cocaine dependence (n = 19) and controls (n = 21) underwent high-resolution structural MRI scan and cognitive assessments. In line with emerging functional neuroimaging findings, we hypothesised (i) lower volumes of corticostriatal areas ascribed to decision-making/inhibitory control, craving and reward processing (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, amygdala, striatum, insula) in both pathological gamblers and cocaine dependent participants versus controls; (ii) selected dopaminergic/glutamatergic pathways directly taxed by cocaine (i.e., superior, dorsolateral and anterior cingulate cortices) would be altered in cocaine dependent versus control participants only. Analyses were conducted with a bonferroni correction. Our results showed that both pathological gambling and cocaine dependent participants, compared to controls, had larger volumes of the right inferior frontal gyrus (ps <.01, ds = 0.66 and 0.62). Cocaine dependent participants had lower nucleus accumbens and medial orbitofrontal cortex volumes than pathological gamblers (ps <.05, ds = 0.51 and 0.72), with the latter being predicted by higher negative urgency scores. Inferior frontal gyrus volume may reflect common alterations of cocaine and gambling addictions, whereas cocaine dependence may be uniquely associated with reduced volume in dorsolateral and middle frontal regions. Cocaine's supra-physiological effects on mesolimbic neurons may explain reduced accumbens-orbitofrontal structure compared to gambling.

中文翻译：

---

解开可卡因依赖与病理性赌博中常见和独特的神经解剖学改变

病理性赌博和可卡因依赖是高度普遍的疾病。功能性神经影像学证据表明这两种疾病中前额叶纹状体通路的异常活动。目前尚不清楚这些区域的神经解剖结构是否也受到影响。患有病理性赌博（n = 18）、可卡因依赖（n = 19）和对照组（n = 21）的参与者接受了高分辨率结构 MRI 扫描和认知评估。与新出现的功能性神经影像学发现一致，我们假设 (i) 归因于决策/抑制控制、渴望和奖励处理（即眶额皮质、额下回、杏仁核、纹状体、岛叶）的皮质纹状体区域的体积较小。赌徒和可卡因依赖参与者与对照者；(ii) 由可卡因直接征税的选定多巴胺能/谷氨酸能通路（即上、背外侧和前扣带回皮质）将仅在可卡因依赖者与对照参与者中发生改变。使用bonferroni校正进行分析。我们的结果表明，与对照组相比，病理性赌博和可卡因依赖参与者的右侧额下回体积更大（ps <.01，ds = 0.66 和 0.62）。与病态赌徒相比，可卡因依赖者的伏隔核和内侧眶额皮质体积较低（ps <.05，ds = 0.51 和 0.72），后者由较高的负紧急评分预测。额下回体积可能反映可卡因和赌博成瘾的常见变化，而可卡因依赖可能与背外侧和中额叶区域的体积减少有关。与赌博相比，可卡因对中脑边缘神经元的超生理作用可能解释了伏隔-眶额结构减少的原因。