Te-Wei Kao1, Ming-Chou Ho2, and Jun-Cheng Weng1,3
1Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 2Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 3Department of Medical Imaging, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
Betel nut is one of the common addictive
substances in many countries. The brain influence of cocaine, alcohol, and
tobacco cigarette have been studied by several studies. However, only few
studies focused on the brain influence of betel nut, and most of them used fMRI
or PET. Thus, our study aim was to use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to
evaluate the impact of neurological structure of white matter caused by betel
nut. The brain structural differences between the betel nut chewers and
healthy controls and the correlation with inhibitory control were also
discussed. Our results pointed out the
significant neurological structural differences in the insula, amygdala and
putamen of DTI indices between the betel nut chewers and healthy controls.
