Regional homogeneity changes in nicotine addicts by resting-state fMRI

<b>Objective:
</b>To reveal the brain functional changes of nicotine addicts compared with those of non-smokers and explore the objective biomarker for nicotine dependence
evaluation.

<b>Methods: </b>A total of 14 smokers and 11 non-smoking controls were recruited for
this study. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and regional
homogeneity (ReHo) were applied in the neural activity analysis. Two-sample t-test was performed to examine
the voxel-wise difference between the smokers and the controls. Correlation
analysis between the ReHo values and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine
Dependence (FTND) scores were performed to explore the biomarkers for the clinical
characteristics of smokers.

<b>Results:
</b>The ReHo values from the right superior frontal gyrus of the Brodmann’s area (BA)
9 to the right middle frontal gyrus and the ReHo value from the left and right precuneus (BA 23) to the left and right middle cingulum gyrus
were lower in the smokers than in the non-smokers.
The ReHo value in the precuneus (BA 23) was significantly and positively
correlated with the FTND score of smokers.

<b>Conclusion:</b> The ReHo values in the right superior
frontal gyrus and left precuneus can be used to separate the smokers from the
non-smokers. In particular, the left precuneus is a potential neuroimaging
biomarker for nicotine addicts.

<b>Keywords: </b>resting state; functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI); nicotine addicts; smoking; regional homogeneity (ReHo); Fagerstrom
Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND); biomarkers