DTI can detect white-matter abnormalities in alcoholics without quantifiable white-matter volume loss (Pfefferbaum et al., 2000). Significant abnormalities (reduced FA and increased MD) have been detected in the corpus callosum, frontal forceps, internal and external capsules, fornix, superior cingulate, and longitudinal fasciculi of alcoholics relative to controls (Fortier et al., 2014; Muller-Oehring, Schulte, Fama, Pfefferbaum, & Sullivan, 2009; Pfefferbaum, Rosenbloom, Adalsteinsson, & Sullivan, 2007; Pfefferbaum et al., 2000). Quantitative DTI investigations have reported microstructural compromise of white matter tracts between midbrain and pons, and in fronto-limbic, fronto-parietal, and fronto-occipital fiber tracts (Bagga, Sharma, et al., 2014; Chanraud et al., 2009; Maksimovskiy et al., 2014; Yeh, Simpson, Durazzo, Gazdzinski, & Meyerhoff, 2009). DTI results suggest microstructural deficits may be more pronounced in alcoholic women (Pfefferbaum, Adalsteinsson, & Sullivan, 2006), despite a lower quantity of lifetime alcohol consumed (Sasaki et al., 2009).
