Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder Affects Intrinsic Connectivity in Large-scale Brain Networks of Adults

Previous research has implicated large-scale neural networks, such as the salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), and default mode network (DMN) in risk for a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Specifically, perturbations in network interconnectivity of the SN has been theorized to reflect changes in salience processing, such as that seen in alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and other addictive disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in intrinsic connectivity between adults with and without a family history of AUDs. To address this, 58 adult participants (22 family history positive (FHP), 36 family history negative (FHN)) underwent a resting state fMRI scan and functional connectivity analyses were performed. Importantly, the groups did not significantly differ in terms of their age, IQ, socioeconomic status, and alcohol consumption, and none of the recruited participants had a lifetime history of substance use disorders. Results show that FHP adults were characterized by decreased connectivity between right frontoinsular cortex (rFIC), a critical node in the SN, and frontoparietal regions of the CEN. Additionally, whole brain functional connectivity map contrasts revealed potential differences in connectivity between ventral tegmental area (VTA), another node in the SN, and DMN. These findings suggest dysfunctional interactions between SN and CEN, typically identified as “task-positive networks”, may associate with the familial transmission of AUDs. Future research should utilize effective connectivity and imaging genetic approaches to more closely examine these group differences at a systems neuroscience level of analysis.Bachelor of Scienc