title: Dynamic responses of selective brain white matter fiber tracts to binge alcohol and recovery in the rat.
abstract: To determine the dynamics of white matter vulnerability to excessive alcohol consumption, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used in an animal model of alcohol exposure. Quantitative, in vivo fiber tracking results are presented from rats with DTI conducted at 3 time points: baseline; after 4 days of intragastric alcohol to blood alcohol levels of ~250 mg/dL; and after one week of recovery. Binge alcohol followed by a week of sobriety resulted in rapidly reversible decreases in fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of the coherence of fiber tracts, in callosal genu and fimbria-fornix but not splenium; and increases in mean diffusivity (MD), an index of freely diffusing water in tissue, selective to the fimbria-fornix. These effects were confirmed with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The directionality of changes in DTI metrics reproduce those observed in human alcoholism. That a single exposure to binge alcohol can cause substantial transient changes detectable in DTI metrics demonstrates the potential for rapid neuroplasticity.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Adolf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pfefferbaum
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Natalie M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Zahr
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America; Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rohlfing
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Edith V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000097:blood; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors; D066127:White Matter / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol