Chao Wang1, Shuyue Wang1, Peiyu Huang1, and Minming Zhang1
1Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
1Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
In this study, we found abnormal white matter tracts of insula subregions in smokers.These altered insula microstructural connectivity could interfere with the normal neural circuitry of reward processing, which might be the underlying neurobiology of nicotine addiction.
Figure 1. Probabilistic tractography of the AI tracts.
Figure 2. The differences of the diffusion findings of insula tracts between smokers and nonsmokers. Compared with nonsmokers, in the left hemisphere, smokers showed lower FA values of PI-NAc and AI-NAc. In the right hemisphere, smokers showed increased FA values of AI-mOFC, PI-mOFC and PI-NAc; decreased AD values of AI-mOFC, PI-mOFC and PI-NAc; decreased RD values of AI-mOFC, PI-mOFC, and PI-NAc; as well as decreased MD values of AI-mOFC, PI-mOFC, and PI-NAc.
