Disturbed Connectivity of EEG Functional Networks in Alcoholism: A Graph-Theoretic Analysis

Generally, an alcoholic's brain shows explicit damage. However, in cognitive tasks, the correlation between the topological structural changes of the brain networks and the brain damage is still unclear. Scalp electrodes and synchronization likelihood (SL) were applied to the constructions of the EGG functional networks of 28 alcoholics and 28 healthy volunteers. The graph-theoretic analysis showed that in cognitive tasks, compared with the healthy control group, the brain networks of alcoholics had smaller clustering coefficients in beta 1 bands, shorter characteristic path lengths, increased global efficiency, but similar small-world properties. The abnormal topological structure of the alcoholics may be related to the local-function brain damage and the compensation mechanism adopted to complete tasks. This conclusion provides a new perspective for alcohol-related brain damage.