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. 2022 Apr 21:13:843254.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.843254. eCollection 2022.

Alternations in Dynamic and Static Functional Connectivity Density in Chronic Smokers

Zhengui Yang  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Mengmeng Wen  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Yarui Wei  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Huiyu Huang  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Ruiping Zheng  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Weijian Wang  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Xinyu Gao  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Mengzhe Zhang  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Jingliang Cheng  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Shaoqiang Han  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 , Yong Zhang  1   2   3   4   5   6   7
Affiliations

Alternations in Dynamic and Static Functional Connectivity Density in Chronic Smokers

Zhengui Yang et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Previous studies have implicated abnormal functional coordination in brain regions of smokers. Neuroimaging studies demonstrated alternations in brain connectivity by using the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) method which arbitrarily chooses specific networks or seed regions as priori selections and cannot provide a full picture of the FC changes in chronic smokers. The aim of this study was to investigate the whole-brain functional coordination measured by functional connectivity density (FCD). As the variance of brain activity, dynamic FCD (dFCD) was performed to investigate dynamic changes of whole-brain integration in chronic smokers. In total, 120 chronic smokers and 56 nonsmokers were recruited, and static FCD and dFCD were performed to investigate aberrance of whole-brain functional coordination. Shared aberrance in visual areas has been found in both static and dFCD study in chronic smokers. Furthermore, the results exhibited that both heavy and light smokers demonstrated decreased dFCD in the visual cortex and left precuneus, and also increased dFCD in the right orbitofrontal cortex, left caudate, right putamen, and left thalamus compared with nonsmokers. In addition, alternations of dFCD have been found between heavy and light smokers. Furthermore, the dFCD variations showed significant positive correlation with smoking-related behaviors. The results demonstrated that chronic smokers not only have some initial areas, but also have some regions associated with severity of cigarette smoking. Lastly, dFCD could provide more subtle variations in chronic smokers, and the combination of static and dFCD may deepen our understanding of the brain alternations in chronic smokers.

Keywords: addiction; chronic smokers; dynamic; fMRI; functional connectivity density; static.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Significant alternations of dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) among three groups; (B) Significant alternations of static functional connectivity density (FCD) among three groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Shared alternations of dFCD measurements of brain regions in both heavy smokers and light smokers compared with nonsmokers. R.OFC, right orbitofrontal cortex; L.CAU, left caudate; R.PUT, right putamen; L.THA, left thalamus; R.CUN, right cuneus; R.CAL, right calcarine; L.CAL, left calcarine; L.PCUN, left precuneus. (The subplot means that both heavy and light smokers have significant alternations of dFCD measurements compared with nonsmokers). * means difference between the two groups has statistical significance.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Both heavy smokers and light smokers showed significant alternations of dFCD measurements in left parahippocampal gyrus, significant differences have been found between heavy smokers and light smokers; (B) Heavy smokers showed significant alternations of dFCD measurements in right thalamus compared with nonsmokers, significant differences have been found between heavy smokers and light smokers; (C) Light smokers showed significant alternations of dFCD measurements in left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) compared with nonsmokers, significant differences have been found between heavy smokers and light smokers. * means difference between the two groups has statistical significance.
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