IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-28735-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank

Author

Listed:
  • Remi Daviet

    (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  • Gökhan Aydogan

    (University of Zurich)

  • Kanchana Jagannathan

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Nathaniel Spilka

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Philipp D. Koellinger

    (University of Wisconsin-Madison
    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Henry R. Kranzler

    (University of Pennsylvania
    Crescenz VAMC)

  • Gideon Nave

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Reagan R. Wetherill

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption shows similar negative associations with brain structure. To address this, we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds. Consistent with prior literature, we find negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure. Specifically, alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure. Here, we show that the negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two daily alcohol units, and become stronger as alcohol intake increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Remi Daviet & Gökhan Aydogan & Kanchana Jagannathan & Nathaniel Spilka & Philipp D. Koellinger & Henry R. Kranzler & Gideon Nave & Reagan R. Wetherill, 2022. "Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28735-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28735-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28735-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-28735-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rongtao Jiang & Stephanie Noble & Matthew Rosenblatt & Wei Dai & Jean Ye & Shu Liu & Shile Qi & Vince D. Calhoun & Jing Sui & Dustin Scheinost, 2024. "The brain structure, inflammatory, and genetic mechanisms mediate the association between physical frailty and depression," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28735-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.