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Abstract #0800

Volumetric Pseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Label (PCASL) Imaging in Chronic Alcoholism: Return to Default Mode Network Activity Levels After a Spatial Working Memory Task

Edith V. Sullivan1, Eva M. Mller-Oehring1, 2, Anne-Lise Pitel1, Sandra Chanraud1, Ajit Shankaranarayanan3, David C. Alsop4, 5, Torsten Rohlfing2, Adolf Pfefferbaum, 12

1Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 3GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 4Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; 5Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States


3D whole-brain pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL) measured cerebral blood perfusion (CBF) in alcoholics and controls while resting, task-engaged, and resting again. Based on bilateral, normalized CBF, both groups showed a default mode network (DMN) pattern (high activation for rest, low for task, return to high CBF in second rest) in medial frontal, temporal, calcarine, insular, cingulate, posterior precuneus cortices and hippocampus-amygdala, and a task-activated pattern (high task activation, low for rest) in cerebellum, parietal, occipital, middle precuneus cortices. Alcoholics differed from controls in CBF levels of insula and the rest-task-rest CBF pattern for anterior precuneus, regions involved in addiction.