Brigham University researchers examined data from 144 studies that included a variety of brain imaging techniques and substances and discovered a common brain network linked to addiction.A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, part of the Massachusetts General Brigham Health System, suggests a common brain network exists among patients with substance use disorders. This conclusion was reached after analyzing data from more than 144 addiction studies.
Research shows that abnormalities in substance use disorders map to a common brain network, regardless of the drug or lesion location. This discovery opens up the possibility of neurostimulation therapies targeting this specific brain circuit. The findings were published in the journal NatureMentalHealth.
Unifying brain circuits in addiction
"Our study found that different brain regions involved in addiction are part of a common brain circuit," said Michael Fox, MD, senior author and founding director of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "The consistency across papers means we now have a brain circuit to target for addiction treatment, not just one area."
Fox collaborated on the study with other members of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapy and researchers from British Columbia, Boston Children's Hospital, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Philips Healthcare. The first author of the paper, Dr. Jacob Stubbs, is a medical student at the University of British Columbia. Stubbs is a visiting scholar at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he studies under Fox.
The research team looked at data from previous studies involving more than 9,000 participants. In each study, a different brain region was considered a target for treating addiction. "The best potential targets are not clear because many different anomalies have been identified in previous studies," Stubbs said.
Network mapping method to identify common circuits
The researchers used network mapping methods of average line maps to find links between different types of brain imaging lesions that influence addiction. The researchers also looked at different substances and found that the network was common among people addicted to nicotine, alcohol, cocaine or heroin.
"What's fascinating is that because there was so much heterogeneity in the neuroimaging and substance use disorder literature, we thought it was unlikely to find a common circuit. But after a lot of work and collaboration, we found something," Stubbs said. "This is exciting science."
Challenges and limitations of the research
One limitation of this study is that because the data came from a previous study and the findings were correlational, the authors were unable to draw conclusions about cause and effect. Stubbs also noted that there are many ways to look at brain imaging, which makes looking at the data more complicated.
Although there are many data points, narrowing down the specific circuits fills a gap in previous research at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapy, bringing targeted neurostimulation (such as transcranial magnetic stimulation) to treat addiction closer to patients in clinical settings.
"This study connects our previous research on the lesions that block addiction with the past 50 years of research on neuroimaging abnormalities in addicted patients," Fox said.
Dr. Joseph Taylor, a psychiatrist and co-author of the paper and clinical director of CBCT transcranial magnetic stimulation, said that this unification is a major advance in the field of brain circuit therapy.
"This convergence increases our confidence that we are beginning to understand the circuitry of substance use disorder," Taylor said.