Systematic review on resting-state fMRI in people with AUD and people who binge drink

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) has become ubiquitous in neuroimaging to study disorders, including alcohol use disorder (AUD), given its potential to serve as a biomarker of psychiatric symptoms. The number of techniques, sample heterogeneity, and findings demand the assessment of results to identify potential biomarkers for the development of treatment. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the alcohol rsfMRI literature by summarizing the results by analysis approach and groups to examine these findings in the context of the neurobiology of addiction model. Three databases were systematically searched, resulting in the inclusion of 17 studies with a total of 784 participants (387 were people with AUD, 38 engaged in binge drinking, and 359 were controls). Seed-based functional connectivity studies were the most prominent. Compared to controls, people who binge drink and people with AUD showed greater connectivity of the Middle Frontal Gyrus—a region associated with the preoccupation/anticipation stage of the theory. Regions of the prefrontal and limbic cortex were most consistently reported in studies. The different types of analyses, sample size, and variability in the sample may have contributed to differences reported across studies. This review synthesizes and examines the results of different studies using the neurobiology of addiction theory, which may inform future studies on potential regions of interest, recruitment approaches, and analysis methods. Standardizing the methods for such a heterogeneous population could lead to more rapid development of neurobiologically-informed treatments for AUD.