Brain Network Characteristics in Heroin Addicts:A Resting-state Functional MRI Study / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

PurposeHeroin addiction is a chronic and recurrent functional brain disease, there are some functional changes in specific brain regions, but the network character remains unclear. The aim of this paper is to explore the network character of brain resting-state functional network in heroin addicts, to identify the potential neuromechanism of heroin addiction from the perspective of brain network.Materials and Methods Thirty heroin addicts (HA group) and twenty-nine healthy controls (control group) underwent resting-state functional MRI scanning using GE 3.0T MRI scanner. The brain functional networks were constructed based on graph theory, the small-world properties and node properties were calculated and compared between the two groups, the correlation between the total dosage of heroin and node degree was analyzed.Results Compared with control group, the small world characteristics of HA group was altered with statistically significant difference (P<0.05, corrected by false discovery rate); the node degrees in orbit frontal regions increased, while those in occipital brain regions decreased (P<0.05, corrected by false discovery rate). No correlation was found in HA group between node degree and the total dosage of heroin.Conclusion These results suggest that topology of functional brain networks were altered in heroin addicts which tends to random networks; increased motivational driving to the salience of drug and decreased visuospatial attention in heroin addicts may provide a strategy for identifying the neuromechanism of heroin addiction.