Abstract
Most prior studies have reported decreased amygdala volume in those with a history of alcohol use disorder. Decreased amygdala volume associated with alcohol use disorder may be related to an increased risk of addiction and relapse. However, the relationship between amygdala volume and a broad range of alcohol consumption is largely unexplored. The present cross-sectional analysis investigates the relationship between amygdala volume and self-reported alcohol consumption in participants of the Dallas Heart Study, a community-based study of Dallas County, Texas residents. Brain imaging and survey data from participants (n = 2023) were obtained, and multiple linear regressions were performed with the average amygdala volume as the dependent variable and drinking status, drinking risk, drinks per week, and binge drinking as independent variables. Drinking risk was categorized such that low-risk constituted ≤ 14 drinks per week in men and ≤ 7 drinks per week in women, while > 14 drinks per week in men and > 7 drinks per week in women constituted high-risk. Age, sex, intracranial volume, body mass index, education, and Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report score were included in all models as covariates. No statistically significant (p ≤ .05) associations were observed between self-reported alcohol consumption and amygdala volume. The present study suggests non-significant relationships between self-reported alcohol consumption and amygdala volume when controlling for relevant demographic factors in a large, community-based sample.
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Data availability
The Executive Committee of the Dallas Heart Study has imposed restrictions on sharing the de-identified data set due to the potential loss of anonymity of participants. Requests for access to the data can be addressed to Dr. Helen H. Hobbs, Director, Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard NB10.204 A MS 8591, Dallas, Texas 75390.
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This work was supported in part by grant UL1TR001105 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (https://ncats.nih.gov/), National Institutes of Health (NIH, https://www.nih.gov/), in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml) of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25MH101078, and in part by NIH grant 1K99CA20452201 to CC. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Center for Translational Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and its affiliated academic and health care centers, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, or the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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C.P. and E.S.B. conceived of the presented idea. C.P. and J.M.P. developed the theory and performed the computations. J.M.P. verified the analytic methods and F.F.Y. verified the neuroimaging methods. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the writing and/or editing of the final manuscript.
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Dr. Brown serves on advisory boards for Sage Pharmaceuticals and Medscape/WebMD on topics unrelated to the current paper. No other authors have any potential conflicts of interest to report.
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Pho, C., Yu, F.F., Palka, J.M. et al. The relationship between alcohol consumption and amygdala volume in a community-based sample. Brain Imaging and Behavior (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00879-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00879-6