Sex differences in tobacco smokers: Executive control network and frontostriatal connectivity

•Examined sex differences involving the executive control network (ECN).•Smokers: women had weaker right-left ECN and corticostriatal coupling.•Results may explain lower abstinence rates noted in women relative to men. Women experience greater difficulty quitting smoking than men, which may be expla...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drug and alcohol dependence 2019-02, Vol.195, p.59-65
Main Authors: McCarthy, Julie M., Dumais, Kelly M., Zegel, Maya, Pizzagalli, Diego A., Olson, David P., Moran, Lauren V., Janes, Amy C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Behavior
Brain
Brain mapping
Brain Mapping - methods
Caudate-putamen
Cerebral hemispheres
Circuits
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Connectivity
Corpus Striatum - drug effects
Corpus Striatum - physiology
Cortex
Coupling
Cross-Over Studies
Double-Blind Method
Executive control
Executive control network
Executive function
Executive Function - physiology
Female
fMRI
Functional connectivity
Functional impairment
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Gender aspects
Gender differences
Humans
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Men
Neostriatum
Nerve Net - diagnostic imaging
Nerve Net - physiology
Neural networks
Neuroimaging
Nicotine
Nonsmokers
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Public health
Recruitment
Relapse
Resting
Sex
Sex Characteristics
Sex differences
Sexual behavior
Smokers - psychology
Smoking
Smoking cessation
Substance abuse
Substance use
Tobacco
Tobacco Smoking - pathology
Tobacco Smoking - psychology
Workplace control
Young Adult
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Summary:•Examined sex differences involving the executive control network (ECN).•Smokers: women had weaker right-left ECN and corticostriatal coupling.•Results may explain lower abstinence rates noted in women relative to men. Women experience greater difficulty quitting smoking than men, which may be explained by sex differences in brain circuitry underlying cognitive control. Prior work has linked reduced interhemispheric executive control network (ECN) coupling with poor executive function, shorter time to relapse, and greater substance use. Lower structural connectivity between a key ECN hub, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the dorsal striatum (DS) also contributes to less efficient cognitive control recruitment, and reduced intrahemispheric connectivity between these regions has been associated with smoking relapse. Therefore, sex differences were probed by evaluating interhemispheric ECN and intrahemispheric DLPFC-DS connectivity. To assess the potential sex by nicotine interaction, a pilot sample of non-smokers was evaluated following acute nicotine and placebo administration. Thirty-five smokers (19 women) completed one resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Seventeen non-smokers (8 women) were scanned twice using a repeated measures design where they received 2 and 0 mg nicotine. In smokers, women had less interhemispheric ECN and DLPFC-DS coupling than men. In non-smokers, there was a drug x sex interaction where women, relative to men, had weaker ECN coupling following nicotine but not placebo administration. The current work indicates that nicotine-dependent women, versus men, have weaker connectivity in brain networks critically implicated in cognitive control. How these connectivity differences contribute to the behavioral aspects of smoking requires more testing. However, building on the literature, it is likely these deficits in functional connectivity contribute to the lower abstinence rates noted in women relative to men.
ISSN:0376-8716
1879-0046
DOI:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.11.023