Family members’ reward-based activation in response to an AUD loved-one

Family members of a loved-one with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) experience much stress and other adverse impacts, especially those that are frontline caregivers and therefore most proximal to AUD. Previous research has shown such family members experience altered functioning of the prefrontal cortex in response to images of their loved-one, and these responses have similarities to brain responses to alcohol cues for a person with AUD. The current study aimed to expand this research by examining whole-brain functional activation of family members’ brains. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure activation responses of 10 family members with a loved-one with diagnosed AUD, as well as that of 10 control group participants, during an event-related research paradigm. Results from Generalized Linear Modeling (GLM) indicated significant activation in the left hippocampus and left amygdala for family members of an AUD loved-one, and this activation was significantly greater than that of a control group. These two subcortical regions play a role in the reward network and their activation found in this study may be associated with a reward-based “approach” response – drawing further parallels between the functioning of the impacted family member’s brain and that of the brain of someone with AUD. This understanding influences how clinicians might provide services to family members of those with AUD.