Differences in dynamic functional connectivity density in individuals with light and heavy smoking addiction: a study based on functional MR / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the changes in dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) and its relationship with Fagerstr?m test for nicotine dependence (FTND) scores in individuals with smoking addiction based on functional MR.Methods:The clinical and imaging data of 176 volunteers recruited through wechat and other online platforms from September 2019 to December 2020 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were retrospectively analyzed. The 176 volunteers were male, aged 20 to 55 years old, and were divided into light smoking addiction group (59 cases), heavy smoking addiction group (61 cases) and control group (56 cases). All subjects underwent resting state functional MR scanning and dFCD was calculated. The dFCD values of three groups were analyzed by ANOVA analysis (GRF corrected, voxel level P<0.005, cluster level P<0.01). Bonferroni correction was used for pairwise comparison. Pearson partial correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between dFCD values of brain regions with statistically significant differences and FTND scores. Results:Differences in dFCD among light smoking addiction group, heavy smoking addiction group and control group were mainly distributed in the right orbitofrontal cortex, left caudate nucleus, right putamen, bilateral calcarine sulcus cortex, right cuneus, left parahippocampal gyrus, left precuneus, left middle temporal gyrus and bilateral thalamus (GRF corrected, voxel level P<0.005, cluster level P<0.01). Compared with the control group, both the light and heavy smoking addiction groups showed decreased dFCD in the bilateral calcarine sulcus cortex, right cuneus and left precuneus, as well as increased dFCD in the right orbitofrontal cortex, right putamen, left caudate nucleus and left thalamus (Bonferroni corrected, P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the heavy smoking addiction group showed increased dFCD in the right thalamus, and the light smoking addiction group showed decreased dFCD in the left middle temporal gyrus (Bonferroni corrected, P<0.001). Compared with the light smoking addiction group, the heavy smoking addiction group showed increased dFCD in the left middle temporal gyrus and right thalamus, and decreased dFCD in the left parahippocampal gyrus (Bonferroni corrected, P<0.05). The mean value of dFCD in the right thalamus was positively correlated with FTND scores in smoking addiction patients ( r=0.227, P=0.014), and the mean value of dFCD in the right thalamus of the heavy smoking addiction subgroup was positively correlated with FTND scores ( r=0.323, P=0.013). There was no correlation between FTND scores and dFCD in the right thalamus of the light smoking addiction group ( P>0.05). Conclusion:There are changes of neural activity in brain regions related to smoking behaviors among people with different severity of smoking addiction, and smoking behaviors of people with heavy smoking addiction tend to be habitual compared with those with light smoking addiction.