ArticleThe American journal of psychiatry2024
Association of Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI Signal With Lifetime Substance Use in Young Women.
Article in The American journal of psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Distinct Connectivity Signatures of Hallucinatory Experiences and Neuromelanin Signal in Community-Dwelling Adolescents.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Article
- Sexual dimorphism of midbrain catecholaminergic metabolism revealed by neuromelanin-sensitive MRI.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Developmental variation in basal ganglia tissue iron, neurocognitive functioning, and impulsivity is associated with substance use trajectories in youth.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Associations of neuromelanin in the substantia nigra with antipsychotic response in schizophrenia.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- The potential of neuromelanin-sensitive MRI in psychiatric disorders.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Developmental variation in dopamine neurobiology, neurocognitive functioning, and impulsivity shape substance use trajectories in youth.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI Contrast and Chronic Depression in Young Women.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI for mechanistic research and biomarker development in psychiatry.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
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
objectiveMidbrain dopamine function plays a key role in translational models of substance use disorders. Whether midbrain dopamine function is associated with substance use frequency and severity or reward function in 20-24 year-olds remains a critical gap in knowledge. The authors collected neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI), a validated index of lifetime dopamine function in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmentum area (SN-VTA) complex, to characterize altered dopamine function.
methodMidbrain NM-MRI contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was acquired in 135 20-24 year-olds (105 women and 30 men). A composite measure of cumulative substance use was derived from factor analysis of lifetime alcohol intoxications, lifetime cannabis use, use of nicotine in heaviest month, number of classes of drugs used, and ever meeting DSM-5 criteria for a SUD. Trait reward function was assessed by self-report.
resultsCumulative substance use was significantly positively associated with NM-MRI CNR in a large area of the bilateral SN-VTA complex, an effect which was driven by women (who comprised most of the sample) and by voxels with greater NM-MRI CNR, including the ventral tegmentum area. NM-MRI CNR was not associated with individual differences in trait reward function.
conclusionsHistory of substance use is associated with greater NM signal in NM-rich areas of the midbrain, especially in women. Future longitudinal studies with repeated NM-MRI assessments, especially in younger cohorts and while including more men, are warranted to evaluate whether aberrant dopamine function predates, follows, or is modulated by substance use.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.