Abnormal frontostriatal connectivity and serotonin function in gambling disorder: A preliminary exploratory study

The neurobiological mechanisms of gambling disorder are not yet fully characterized, limiting the development of treatments. Defects in frontostriatal connections have been shown to play a major role in substance use disorders, but data on behavioral addictions, such as gambling disorder, are scarce...

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Published inJournal of behavioral addictions Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 670 - 681
Main Authors Bellmunt-Gil, Albert, Majuri, Joonas, Arponen, Evelina, Kaasinen, Valtteri, Joutsa, Juho
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hungary Akadémiai Kiadó 01.09.2023
Academic Publishing House
Akademiai Kiado
Subjects
Behaviorism
Clinical psychology
Gambling
Health and medicine and law
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Neurophysiology
Personality Psychology
PET imaging
Phenols
Serotonin
Substance abuse
Substance abuse and addiction
Finland
serotonin
KEYWORDS gambling disorder
DLPFC
NAcc
rsfcMRI
PET
frontostriatal connectivity
rs-fcMRI
gambling disorder
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Summary:The neurobiological mechanisms of gambling disorder are not yet fully characterized, limiting the development of treatments. Defects in frontostriatal connections have been shown to play a major role in substance use disorders, but data on behavioral addictions, such as gambling disorder, are scarce. The aim of this study was to 1) investigate whether gambling disorder is associated with abnormal frontostriatal connectivity and 2) characterize the key neurotransmitter systems underlying the connectivity abnormalities. Methods: Fifteen individuals with gambling disorder and 17 matched healthy controls were studied with resting-state functional connectivity MRI and three brain positron emission tomography scans, investigating dopamine (18F-FDOPA), opioid (11C-carfentanil) and serotonin (11C-MADAM) function. Frontostriatal connectivity was investigated using striatal seed-to-voxel connectivity and compared between the groups. Neurotransmitter systems underlying the identified connectivity differences were investigated using region-of-interest and voxelwise approaches. Results: Individuals with gambling disorder showed loss of functional connectivity between the right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and a region in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (PFWE
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These authors contributed equally
ISSN:2062-5871
2063-5303
DOI:10.1556/2006.2023.00037