ArticleNature communications2022
Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 143 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
143 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Examining alcohol use disorder recovery definitions and demographic reporting in studies of structural brain recovery: an updated systematic review and extension.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Pooled it
- Alcohol and brain structure across the lifespan: A systematic review of large-scale neuroimaging studies.Addiction biology · 2024Pooled it
- Developmental Deficiency of Oligodendrocytes and Myelination in the Central Nervous System of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Mouse Model.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Lifestyle risk factors of white matter brain aging: Evidence, potential mechanisms, and future direction.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Higher amyloid deposition and lower white matter volume in cognitively healthy seniors exceeding French alcohol recommendations.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Circulating palmitoleic acid is associated with cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy middle-aged individuals: results from the Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis prospective cohort study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Observational
- Linking the exposome to the brain-behaviour phenotype.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Attenuated conditioned taste aversion for sucrose in female mice with a history of chronic low-dose ethanol exposure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- UK Biobank at 20 - a growing, global resource for dementia research.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- Identification of distinct clinical phenotypes and their neurobiological signatures in stress-exposed individuals: A multimodal machine learning approach.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Article
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- Exposome-wide patterns predict brain health in aging.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A physically and mentally active lifestyle relates to younger brain and cognitive age.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Willingness to Undergo Brain Health Testing and Motivation for Lifestyle Changes: Insights From a Survey of the Cuban Population.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- NeuroFM: Toward Precision Neuroimaging with Foundation Models for Individualized Brain Health Estimation.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Gut Microbiota-Derived Anandamide Mediates the Therapeutic Effects of Urolithin A on Alcohol-Induced Cognitive and Social Dysfunction via CB1R-DRD2-RAP1 Signaling Axis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Higher drinking frequency corresponds to lower synaptic density in people with alcohol use disorder.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Observational
- Cognitive Functioning in Abstinent Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder: Exploring Evidence for Premature Aging.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Impact of chronic alcohol and stress on midlife cognition and locus coeruleus integrity in mice.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
83 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption shows similar negative associations with brain structure. To address this, we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds. Consistent with prior literature, we find negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure. Specifically, alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure. Here, we show that the negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two daily alcohol units, and become stronger as alcohol intake increases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.