Activation of Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Thalamus in Alcoholic Subjects on Exposure to Alcohol-Specific Cues

George, Mark S.; Anton, Raymond F.; Bloomer, Courtnay W.; Tenebäck, Charlotte C.; Drobes, David J.; Lorberbaum, Jeffrey P.; Nahas, Ziad; Vincent, Diana J.

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.58.4.345

Cited by 358 publications

(287 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The results of this comparison were the most salient and robust effect in our original study (George et al, 2001). Confirming our earlier work, the alcoholics, and not the social drinkers, had robust activation in prefrontal and limbic regions.…”

Section: Comparison Of Alcohol Cues With Beverage Cuesmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…The cue-induced MRI scanning procedure was similar to our original study (George et al, 2001). Briefly, as depicted in Figure 1, alcohol and nonalcohol beverage picture cues were selected primarily from the Normative Appetitive Picture System (NAPS) (Breiner et al, 1995) but supplemented to avoid repeating the same stimuli during the scanning sequence.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, our group used fMRI to evaluate regional brain activity changes in alcoholics and social drinkers during alcohol cue stimulation (George et al, 2001). The results from this study revealed that alcoholics, as a group, had greater relative increases in brain activation in the anterior thalamus and left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex during alcohol-specific cues, while the social drinkers did not have any alcohol cue-specific brain activation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Differential Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Social Drinkers to Alcohol Cues: Relationship to Craving

Myrick

Anton

et al. 2003

Neuropsychopharmacol

471

345

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Using fMRI, our group previously found that after a sip of alcohol and exposure to alcohol beverage pictures, alcoholics compared to social drinkers had increased differential brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus. This study extends this earlier work with several improvements including imaging the entire brain (rather than the anterior half previously) and recording craving, while the subjects viewed images within the scanner. In a Philips 1.5 T MRI scanner, 10 nontreatment-seeking alcoholics and 10 age-matched healthy social drinkers were given a sip of alcohol before viewing a 12 min randomized presentation of pictures of alcoholic beverages, nonalcoholic beverages, and two different visual control tasks. During picture presentation, changes in regional brain activity were measured in 15 transverse T2*-weighted blood oxygen level dependent slices. Subjects rated their urge to drink after each picture sequence. After a sip of alcohol, while viewing alcohol cues compared to viewing other beverage cues, the alcoholics, but not social drinkers, reported higher craving ratings and had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior limbic regions. Brain activity in the left nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, and left orbitofrontal cortex significantly correlated with subjective craving ratings in alcohol subjects but not in control subjects. This study suggests, as did our earlier study, that alcoholics and not social drinkers, when exposed to alcohol cues, have increased brain activity in areas that reportedly subserve craving for other addictive substances.

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Section: Comparison Of Alcohol Cues With Beverage Cuesmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Differential Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Social Drinkers to Alcohol Cues: Relationship to Craving

Myrick

Anton

et al. 2003

Neuropsychopharmacol

471

345

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…To establish validity of this picture set we chose a criterion that we assumed is relatively universal and uncontroversial, namely that a valid alcohol picture should elicit a greater urge to drink in heavy drinkers than in light drinkers (Drobes, 2002; George et al., 2001; Grüsser et al., 2000, 2002; Lee et al., 2006; Nees et al., 2012). In addition, we state that relative to alcohol, a valid nonalcohol picture should elicit a relatively weaker, but not a negative urge to drink in heavy drinkers compared to light drinkers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of the Amsterdam Beverage Picture Set: A Controlled Picture Set for Cognitive Bias Measurement and Modification Paradigms

Pronk

Deursen

Beraha

et al. 2015

Alcohol Clin Exp Res

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BackgroundAlcohol research may benefit from controlled and validated picture sets. We have constructed the Amsterdam Beverage Picture Set (ABPS), which was designed for alcohol research in general and cognitive bias measurement and modification in particular. Here, we first formulate a position on alcohol stimulus validity that prescribes that alcohol‐containing pictures, compared to nonalcohol‐containing pictures, should induce a stronger urge to drink in heavy drinkers than in light drinkers. Because a perceptually simple picture might induce stronger cognitive biases but the presence of a drinking context might induce a stronger urge to drink, the ABPS contains pictures with and without drinking context. By limiting drinking contexts to simple consumption scenes instead of real‐life scenes, complexity was minimized. A validation study was conducted to establish validity, to examine ABPS drinking contexts, and to explore the role of familiarity, valence, arousal, and control.MethodsTwo hundred ninety‐one psychology students completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, as well as rating and recognition tasks for a subset of the ABPS pictures.ResultsThe ABPS was well‐recognized, familiar, and heavy drinkers reported a greater urge to drink in response to the alcohol‐containing pictures only. Alcohol presented in drinking context did not elicit a stronger urge to drink but was recognized more slowly than alcohol presented without context.ConclusionsThe ABPS was found to be valid, although pictures without context might be preferable for measuring cognitive biases than pictures with context. We discuss how an explicit approach to picture construction may aid in creating variations of the ABPS. Finally, we describe how ABPS adoption across studies may allow more reproducible and comparable results across paradigms, while allowing researchers to apply picture selection criteria that correspond to a wide range of theoretical positions. The latter is exemplified by ABPS derivatives and adoptions that are currently under way.

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“…Many studies have indicated that passive exposure to alcohol-or drug-associated environmental cues may elicit alcohol/drug-seeking behavior in human addicts after weeks or months of abstinence (Drummond et al, 1990;George et al, 2001). In line with clinical data, ethanol is a strong reinforcer for laboratory animals (Samson et al, 2000), and alcohol-associated cues elicit drug-seeking behavior in animals trained to self-administer alcohol, even after protracted abstinence (Shalev et al, 2002;Wedzony et al, 2003;Bienkowski et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Alcohol Relapse Induced by Discrete Cues Activates Components of AP-1 Transcription Factor and ERK Pathway in the Rat Basolateral and Central Amygdala

Radwańska

Wróbel

Korkosz

et al. 2007

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Alcohol-related cues may induce relapse to heavy alcohol drinking and promote molecular adaptations in discrete brain regions. An exact nature of these molecular alterations is still unknown. In the present study, rats trained to self-administer ethanol were tested for cueinduced reinstatement of ethanol seeking after 30 days of abstinence. Next, a detailed immunocytochemical analysis of c-Fos activation was performed within seven nuclei of the amygdala. In the second experiment, c-Fos activation after reinstatement of ethanol seeking induced by discrete cues was compared with the activation pattern of its putative partner (c-Jun) and regulators (extracellular signalregulated kinases and c-Jun N-terminal kinases). Reexposure to ethanol-associated context cues (an extinction session) potentiated c-Fos expression within the basolateral and central amygdala. Repeated presentation of ethanol-associated discrete cues in an extinction/ reinstatement session led to even stronger c-Fos activation in the latter nuclei. In the second experiment, reexposure to the ethanolassociated context and discrete cues activated both c-Jun and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) in the basolateral amygdala. Our observations suggest that the basolateral and central amygdala may be specifically involved in alcohol-seeking behavior induced by discrete cues.

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Activation of Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Thalamus in Alcoholic Subjects on Exposure to Alcohol-Specific Cues

Abstract: When exposed to alcohol cues, alcoholic subjects have increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus-brain regions associated with emotion regulation, attention, and appetitive behavior.

Cited by 358 publications

References 23 publications

Differential Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Social Drinkers to Alcohol Cues: Relationship to Craving

Differential Brain Activity in Alcoholics and Social Drinkers to Alcohol Cues: Relationship to Craving

Validation of the Amsterdam Beverage Picture Set: A Controlled Picture Set for Cognitive Bias Measurement and Modification Paradigms

Alcohol Relapse Induced by Discrete Cues Activates Components of AP-1 Transcription Factor and ERK Pathway in the Rat Basolateral and Central Amygdala

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