Recently, meta-analysis study on the structural findings of AUD using an effect-size based meta-analytical approach demonstrated significant GM reductions in the corticostriatal-limbic circuits including the key areas of the triple networks, such as DLPFC, hippocampus, bilateral insula, and ACC compared to healthy controls (9). Another study applying a different methodology (i.e., Anatomical Likelihood Estimation) also found gray matter reduction in the insula, ACC, and DLPFC, and demonstrated the association between volume reduction and functional impairment including cognition, emotion, and perception (28). This finding suggests that the gray matter reduction of the areas in the triple networks could be associated with cognitive and affective impairment observed in patients with AUD. However, to our knowledge, there is no study so far to directly identify the relationship between structural reduction and FC alteration in the triple networks of patients with AUD. Therefore, we aimed to identify volume changes by VBM in the three networks and provide further insight into the association between functional impairment and structural damage related to alcohol use in these neural areas (9, 29–31).
