ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2021
Orbitofrontal cortex thickness and substance use disorders in emerging adulthood: causal inferences from a co-twin control/discordant twin study.
Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Independent brain cortical signatures of risk for adolescent cannabis use and consequences of such use are moderated by sex.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Sex differences in normative modeling of cortical thickness in cannabis use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Cortical Thickness of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- The Genetically Informed Neurobiology of Addiction (GINA) model.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsResearch linking orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) structure and substance use disorders (SUDs) is largely correlational and often implies a causal effect of addiction/substance exposure on the brain, but familial risk factors (e.g. genetic liability) may confound these associations. We tested whether associations between alcohol, cannabis and tobacco use disorders and OFC thickness reflected the potential causal effects of familial risk or SUDs-related consequences (e.g. substance exposure).
designA co-twin control/discordant twin design separated familial risk confounding from SUD-related consequences. SETTING/
participantsA population-based sample of 436 24-year-old twins (62% monozygotic) from the Minnesota Twin Family Study, USA. MEASUREMENTS: Alcohol, cannabis and tobacco use disorders were assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Substance Abuse Module. Cortical thickness of the medial and lateral OFC (mOFC and lOFC, respectively) was assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
findingsLower mOFC (P-values ≤ 0.006) but not lOFC (P-values ≥ 0.190) thickness was observed in diagnosed individuals (n = 185) relative to non-SUD controls (n = 251). Co-twin control analyses offered evidence that mOFC associations were consistent with familial risk across SUDs (between-pair effect: P-values ≤ 0.047) and the independent consequences of having an alcohol or cannabis use disorder (within-pair effect: P-values ≤ 0.024). That is, within alcohol/cannabis discordant twin pairs, affected twins had significantly lower mOFC thickness compared with their unaffected co-twins.
conclusionsA confounder-adjusted analysis of the Minnesota Twin Family Study appeared to indicate that, beyond a substance use disorders general familial risk effect, the experience of an alcohol or cannabis use disorder in emerging adulthood reduces the thickness of the medial orbitofrontal cortex, a region associated with value-guided decision-making.
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