Altered anterior cingulate cortex to hippocampus effective connectivity in response to drug cues in men with cocaine use disorder

Abstract

Drug-related attentional bias may have significant implications for the treatment of cocaine use disorder (CocUD). However, the neurobiology of attentional bias is not completely understood. This study employed dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to conduct an analysis of effective (directional) connectivity involved in drug-related attentional bias in treatment-seeking CocUD subjects. The DCM analysis was conducted based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired from fifteen CocUD subjects while performing a cocaine-word Stroop task, during which blocks of Cocaine Words (CW) and Neutral Words (NW) alternated. There was no significant attentional bias at group level. Although no significant brain activation was found, the DCM analysis found that, relative to the NW, the CW caused a significant increase in the strength of the right (R) anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to R hippocampus effective connectivity. Greater increase of this connectivity was associated with greater CW reaction time (relative to NW reaction time). The increased strength of R ACC to R hippocampus connectivity may reflect ACC activation of hippocampal memories related to drug use, which was triggered by the drug cues. This circuit could be a potential target for therapeutics in CocUD patients. No significant change was found in the other modeled connectivities.

Left Hippocampus to Anterior Cingulate Cortex Connectivity Correlates with Worse Recent Verbal Memory in Pornography Addicted Juveniles

“…Similar process has been shown in other kinds of addiction, i.e. game, internet, and Prawiroharjo 16 pornography addiction [8,12,17,26,[34][35][36]. Decline in working memory affects goal-oriented behaviour greatly, as aforementioned maintained by PFC and corticolimbic network [8,16], thus suggested the problem existence in pornography addiction [37].…”

“…Although drug addiction studies are appreciably more dominating than other kinds of addiction, similar findings have also been shown on other addictions, i.e. game, internet, and pornography addiction [8,12,17,26,[34][35][36].…”

“…Various evidence supports the interaction of hippocampus-PFC in reward learning, thus intercorrelate with addiction and impulsivity [17,33]. Particular region in hippocampus has been implicated in context-dependent process, which is the ventral subiculum of the hippocampus.…”

“…both involves disruption in PFC area [13 -15]. The involvement of both emotion and executive functions in neurobiology of addiction are thought to be connected through the broader form of corticolimbic network, in which are anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) that may intercorrelate with each other [8,16,17].…”

Impulsivity and Thought Suppression in Behavioral Addiction: Associated Neural Connectivity and Neural Networks

“…Damage to the cortico-striatal nervous system largely contributed to maladaptive invasive thinking. Imaging studies have found that addiction-related cues increased the activation in the ACC, amygdala, ventral striatum, NAcc in addictive disorders, such as drug use 35 , gambling 36 , and overeating 37 . On the contrary, increased activation in ACC and insular during the suppression of thoughts were found in comparison with free-thought conditions 38 .…”