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Multimodal brain imaging study of 36,678 participants reveals adverse effects of moderate drinking

Remi Daviet, Gökhan Aydogan, Kanchana Jagannathan, Nathaniel Spilka, Philipp D. Koellinger, Henry R. Kranzler, Gideon Nave, View ORCID ProfileReagan R. Wetherill
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.27.011791
Remi Daviet
1Marketing Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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Gökhan Aydogan
2Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
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Kanchana Jagannathan
3Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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Nathaniel Spilka
3Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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Philipp D. Koellinger
4La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
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Henry R. Kranzler
3Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
5Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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Gideon Nave
1Marketing Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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  • For correspondence: rweth@pennmedicine.upenn.edu gnave@wharton.upenn.edu
Reagan R. Wetherill
3Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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  • ORCID record for Reagan R. Wetherill
  • For correspondence: rweth@pennmedicine.upenn.edu gnave@wharton.upenn.edu
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ABSTRACT

Heavy alcohol consumption can have significant deleterious neural consequences, including brain atrophy, neuronal loss, poorer white matter fiber integrity, and cognitive decline. However, the effects of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption on brain structure remain unclear. Here, we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds. We find negative associations between alcohol intake and global gray matter volume (GMV) and white matter volume (WMV), which become stronger as intake increases. An examination of the associations between alcohol intake and 139 regional GMV imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) and 375 WM microstructure IDPs yielded 304 (59.1%) significant findings, including 125 GMV IDPs that are spread across the brain and 179 WM microstructure IDPs across multiple tract regions. In general, findings comport with the existing literature. However, a daily alcohol intake of as little as one to two units – 250 to 500 ml of a 4% beer or 76 to 146 ml of a 13% wine – is already associated with GMV deficits and altered WMV microstructure, placing moderate drinkers at risk.

One Sentence Summary Moderate alcohol intake, consuming one or more daily alcohol units, has adverse effects on brain health.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 10, 2021.
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Multimodal brain imaging study of 36,678 participants reveals adverse effects of moderate drinking
Remi Daviet, Gökhan Aydogan, Kanchana Jagannathan, Nathaniel Spilka, Philipp D. Koellinger, Henry R. Kranzler, Gideon Nave, Reagan R. Wetherill
bioRxiv 2020.03.27.011791; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.27.011791
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Multimodal brain imaging study of 36,678 participants reveals adverse effects of moderate drinking
Remi Daviet, Gökhan Aydogan, Kanchana Jagannathan, Nathaniel Spilka, Philipp D. Koellinger, Henry R. Kranzler, Gideon Nave, Reagan R. Wetherill
bioRxiv 2020.03.27.011791; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.27.011791

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