Hyperconnectivity of the lateral amygdala in long-term methamphetamine abstainers negatively correlated with withdrawal duration

Yifan Li; Xuhao Wang; Shucai Huang; Qiuping Huang; Ru Yang; Zhenjiang Liao; Xinxin Chen; Shuhong Lin; Yongyan Shi; Chenhan Wang; Ying Tang; Jingyue Hao; Jie Yang; Hongxian Shen

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1138704

Hyperconnectivity of the lateral amygdala in long-term methamphetamine abstainers negatively correlated with withdrawal duration

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Nov 10:14:1138704. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1138704. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yifan Li^#¹, Xuhao Wang^#¹, Shucai Huang², Qiuping Huang³, Ru Yang⁴, Zhenjiang Liao¹, Xinxin Chen¹, Shuhong Lin¹, Yongyan Shi¹, Chenhan Wang⁵, Ying Tang¹, Jingyue Hao¹, Jie Yang¹, Hongxian Shen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, and National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² Department of Psychiatry, The Fourth People's Hospital of Wuhu, Wuhu, Anhui, China.
³ Department of Applied Psychology, School of Humanities and Management, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁵ The First Clinical Medical College of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Several studies have reported structural and functional abnormalities of the amygdala caused by methamphetamine addiction. However, it is unknown whether abnormalities in amygdala function persist in long-term methamphetamine abstainers. Methods: In this study, 38 long-term male methamphetamine abstainers (>12 months) and 40 demographically matched male healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Considering the heterogeneous nature of the amygdala structure and function, we chose 4 amygdala subregions (i.e., left lateral, left medial, right lateral, and right medial) as regions of interest (ROI) and compared the ROI-based resting-state functional connectivity (FC) at the whole-brain voxel-wise between the two groups. We explored the relationship between the detected abnormal connectivity, methamphetamine use factors, and the duration of withdrawal using correlation analyses. We also examined the effect of methamphetamine use factors, months of withdrawal, and sociodemographic data on detected abnormal connectivity through multiple linear regressions. Results: Compared with HCs, long-term methamphetamine abstainers showed significant hyperconnectivity between the left lateral amygdala and a continuous area extending to the left inferior/middle occipital gyrus and left middle/superior temporal gyrus. Abnormal connections negatively correlated with methamphetamine withdrawal time (r = -0.85, p < 0.001). The linear regression model further demonstrated that the months of withdrawal could identify the abnormal connectivity (β_adj = -0.86, 95%CI: -1.06 to -0.65, p < 0.001). Discussion: The use of methamphetamine can impair the neural sensory system, including the visual and auditory systems, but this abnormal connectivity can gradually recover after prolonged withdrawal of methamphetamine. From a neuroimaging perspective, our results suggest that withdrawal is an effective treatment for methamphetamine.

Keywords: amygdala; functional connectivity; long-term withdrawal; occipital gyrus; temporal gyrus.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Postgraduate Innovative Project of Central South University (2023XQLH039) and Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation For Postgraduate (QL20230056) to XW, and the Scientific Research Launch Project for New Employees of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University to JY.