Associations of thalamocortical networks with reduced mindfulness in alcohol use disorder

Niklaus Denier; Leila M Soravia; Franz Moggi; Maria Stein; Matthias Grieder; Andrea Federspiel; Zeno Kupper; Roland Wiest; Tobias Bracht

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1123204

Associations of thalamocortical networks with reduced mindfulness in alcohol use disorder

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jul 6:14:1123204. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1123204. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Niklaus Denier^{1

2}, Leila M Soravia^{1

2

3}, Franz Moggi^{1

2}, Maria Stein^{1

4}, Matthias Grieder^{1

2}, Andrea Federspiel^{1

2}, Zeno Kupper¹, Roland Wiest^{2

5}, Tobias Bracht^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
² Translational Imaging Center (TIC), Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland.
³ Clinic Suedhang, Kirchlindach, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁵ Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Abstract

Background: Increased mindfulness is associated with reduced alcohol consumption in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) after residential treatment. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanism of mindfulness in AUD is unclear. Therefore, we investigate the structural and functional alterations of the thalamocortical system with a focus on the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MD-TN), the default mode and the salience network (DMN/SN) which has previously been associated with mindfulness in healthy subjects. We hypothesized lower mindfulness and reduced structural and functional connectivity (FC) of the thalamocortical system, particularly in the DMN/SN in AUD. We assumed that identified neurobiological alterations in AUD are associated with impairments of mindfulness.

Methods: Forty-five abstinent patients with AUD during residential treatment and 20 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Structural and resting-state functional MRI-scans were acquired. We analysed levels of mindfulness, thalamic volumes and network centrality degree of the MD-TN using multivariate statistics. Using seed-based whole brain analyses we investigated functional connectivity (FC) of the MD-TN. We performed exploratory correlational analyses of structural and functional DMN/SN measurements with levels of mindfulness.

Results: In AUD we found significantly lower levels of mindfulness, lower bilateral thalamic and left MD-TN volumes, reduced FC between MD-TN and anterior cingulum/insula and lower network centrality degree of the left MD-TN as compared to HC. In AUD, lower mindfulness was associated with various reductions of structural and functional aspects of the MD-TN.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that structural and functional alterations of a network including the MD-TN and the DMN/SN underlies disturbed mindfulness in AUD.

Keywords: alcohol use disorder; default mode network; magnetic resonance imaging; mindfulness; salience network; thalamus.