Attenuated neural response to emotional cues in cocaine-dependence: a preliminary analysis of gender differences

Abstract

Background Cocaine users often report a loss of arousal for nondrug-related stimuli, which may contribute to their response to drug-related rewards. However, little is known about users’ neural reactivity to emotional nondrug-related stimuli and the potential influence of gender. Objectives Test the hypotheses that cocaine-dependent individuals have an attenuated neural response to arousing stimuli relative to controls and that this difference is amplified in women. Methods The brain response to typically arousing positive and negative images as well as neutral images from the International Affective Picture System was measured in 40 individuals (20 non-treatment seeking cocaine-dependent and 20 age- and gender-matched control participants; 50% of whom were women). Images were displayed for 4 s each in blocks of five across two 270-second runs. General linear models assessed within and between group activation differences for the emotional images. Results Cocaine-dependent individuals had a significantly lower response to typically arousing positive and negative images than controls, with attenuated neural activity present in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Analyses by gender revealed less mPFC/ACC activation among female users, but not males, for both positive and negative images. Conclusion The dampened neural response to typically arousing stimuli among cocaine-dependent polydrug users suggests decreased salience processing for nondrug stimuli, particularly among female users. This decreased responding is consistent with data from other substance using populations and suggests that this may be a general feature of addiction. Amplifying the neural response to naturally arousing nondrug-related reinforcers may present an opportunity for unique behavioral and brain stimulation therapies.

One Is Not Enough: Understanding and Modeling Polysubstance Use

“…Although many studies have focused on simultaneous drug combinations, sequential patterns of polydrug consumption are more frequently reported (Leri et al, 2004;Roy et al, 2013) and produce unique circuit adaptations following acute and repeated drug exposure (Cunha-Oliveira et al, 2008). Understanding sex differences in frequency and pattern of polydrug use (McClure et al, 2017), drug discrimination (Spence et al, 2016), and circuit alterations (Canterberry et al, 2016;Manwell et al, 2019) is also necessary to fully understand the interactions and impacts of polydrug use in clinical populations. Furthermore, although powerful behavioral economic models allow comparisons across drug classes, these experiments must be designed with consideration of different scales of intake and indifference points for drug valuation in order to accurately model parameters and interpret data (Newman and Ferrario, 2019).…”

Ventral striatal dysfunction in cocaine dependence – difference mapping for subregional resting state functional connectivity

“…We observed increased VS–MFC and dpVS–left IFC connectivity in CD. Studies have reported aberrant MFC/IFC activation during emotion processing in addicted individuals 58 , 69 . The VS responds to drug reward 70 but also to negative emotions, noxious stimulation and pain 71 – 77 .…”

Facilitation of Crossmodal Integration During Emotional Prediction in Methamphetamine Dependents

“…Compared to HCs, MADs particularly showed a slower response to the crossmodal emotional integration (Craparo et al, 2016). It might be related to the abnormal activation of prefrontal and other limbic-related regions involved in emotion and integration processing (Canterberry et al, 2016).…”

“…Results show a shorter RT for VA than A and V in HCs; however, there was no significant difference between VA and V in MADs. Besides, MADs had a longer RT than HCs in VA and A, not in V. (B) Under a neutral emotion, a significant modality effect was seen in MADs as a shorter RT for VA than A and V. ** p < 0.01. neurological perspective, the crossmodal emotional disorder of MADs may be associated with the functional abnormalities of the frontal cortex and limbic areas (Canterberry et al, 2016).…”