BackgroundThe growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants leads to new challenges to human health. A possible addiction mechanism has been proposed by altered functional architecture of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) during resting state. NAc contains different subdivisions and they may play different roles in addiction. The aim of the present study was to examine whether there are common or distinct patterns of functional connectivity of the NAc subdivisions in amphetamine-type stimulant abusers (ATSAs).MethodsThe present study recruited 17 male ATSAs and 22 healthy male controls. All the subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with their eyes closed. The NAc was divided into core-like and shell-like subdivisions. We used seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses to identify differences in brain functional architecture between ATSAs and healthy controls (HCs).ResultsATSAs had lower positive RSFCs with all of the NAc subdivisions over the left orbital part of superior frontal gyrus and higher positive RSFCs with the NAc subdivisions over the left opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus than HCs, which indicates common abnormalities across the NAc subdivisions in ATSAs. In addition, the RSFCs between the NAc subdivisions and the left orbital part of superior frontal gyrus were negatively correlated with the addiction severity in ATSAs.ConclusionThese results provide evidence that there are common RSFC patterns of the NAc subdivisions in ATSAs. The abnormality indicated by disrupted functional connectivity between the NAc subdivisions and prefrontal cortex suggests abnormal interaction between the rewarding process and cognitive control in ATSAs. Our results shed insight on the neurobiological mechanisms of ATSA and suggest potential novel therapeutic targets for treatment and intervention of ATSAs.

中文翻译：

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苯丙胺类兴奋剂滥用者伏隔核细分的功能连接改变：静息态 fMRI 研究

背景 安非他明类兴奋剂的日益滥用给人类健康带来了新的挑战。通过在静息状态下改变伏隔核 (NAc) 的功能结构，提出了一种可能的成瘾机制。NAc 包含不同的细分，它们可能在成瘾中发挥不同的作用。本研究的目的是检查安非他明类兴奋剂滥用者 (ATSA) 中 NAc 细分是否存在共同或不同的功能连接模式。方法 本研究招募了 17 名男性 ATSA 和 22 名健康男性对照。所有受试者均闭眼接受静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）。NAc分为核状和壳状细分。我们使用基于种子的静息状态功能连接 (RSFC) 分析来识别 ATSAs 和健康对照 (HCs) 之间大脑功能结构的差异。 结果 ATSAs 具有较低的阳性 RSFCs，所有 NAc 细分都位于额上回左眼眶部分并且在下额回左鳃盖部分的 NAc 细分高于 HC，这表明 ATSA 中 NAc 细分的常见异常。此外，NAc 细分和额上回左眼眶部分之间的 RSFC 与 ATSA 中的成瘾严重程度呈负相关。结论这些结果提供证据表明 ATSA 中 NAc 细分存在常见的 RSFC 模式。NAc 细分和前额叶皮层之间的功能连接中断所表明的异常表明 ATSA 中奖励过程和认知控制之间的异常相互作用。我们的研究结果揭示了 ATSA 的神经生物学机制，并提出了治疗和干预 ATSA 的潜在新治疗靶点。