Eliciting Nicotine Craving with Virtual Smoking Cues

Abstract

Craving is a strong desire to consume that emerges in every case of substance addiction. Previous studies have shown that eliciting craving with an exposure cues protocol can be a useful option for the treatment of nicotine dependence. Thus, the main goal of this study was to develop a virtual platform in order to induce craving in smokers. Fifty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different virtual environments: high arousal contextual cues and low arousal contextual cues scenarios (17 smokers with low nicotine dependency were excluded). An eye-tracker system was used to evaluate attention toward these cues. Eye fixation on smoking-related cues differed between smokers and nonsmokers, indicating that smokers focused more often on smoking-related cues than nonsmokers. Self-reports of craving are in agreement with these results and suggest a significant increase in craving after exposure to smoking cues. In sum, these data support the use of virtual environments for eliciting craving.

Virtual Reality (VR) in Assessment and Treatment of Addictive Disorders: A Systematic Review

“…Nicotine addiction criteria were reported in 13 studies, using DSM 4 (Guze, 1995) and/or Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence criteria (Heatherton et al, 1991). Dependence severity was disparate across 8 studies, ranging from low to high (Lee et al, 2003(Lee et al, , 2005Traylor et al, 2008Traylor et al, , 2009Traylor et al, , 2011Acker and MacKillop, 2013;Gamito et al, 2014;Thompson-Lake et al, 2015). Virtual reality exposure was controlled by a randomized healthy control group in 2 studies Gamito et al, 2014) and active 2D image comparators in 2 others (Lee et al, 2003(Lee et al, , 2005.…”

“…Various cues (proximal: lighter, ashtray, pack of cigarettes, contextual: convenience store, party, complexes: smokers at a party or at a pub, having lunch at home) were associated with craving induction. In most cases (17-24, 26, 27, 29, 32, 33), complex cues were evaluated and often compared to other types of cues (Bordnick et al, 2005;Traylor et al, 2008;Paris et al, 2011;Pericot-Valverde et al, 2011;Kaganoff et al, 2012;Gamito et al, 2014;Thompson-Lake et al, 2015). Some results suggested greater craving induction following complex cues compared to proximal (Thompson-Lake et al, 2015) or contextual cues (Gamito et al, 2014).…”

“…In most cases (17-24, 26, 27, 29, 32, 33), complex cues were evaluated and often compared to other types of cues (Bordnick et al, 2005;Traylor et al, 2008;Paris et al, 2011;Pericot-Valverde et al, 2011;Kaganoff et al, 2012;Gamito et al, 2014;Thompson-Lake et al, 2015). Some results suggested greater craving induction following complex cues compared to proximal (Thompson-Lake et al, 2015) or contextual cues (Gamito et al, 2014). Pericot-Valverde et al (2011) suggested that social pressure in the form of virtual avatar could induce a faster craving increase in a complex-cue environment, although no difference in overall craving intensity was found.…”

Individual variables related to craving reduction in cue exposure treatment

“…Previous studies found that depressive and impulsive smokers exhibit enhanced attention to smoking-related cues (Doran, Cook, McChargue, & Spring, 2009;Kushnir et al, 2013;Littel, Franken, & Van Strien, 2009;Lochbuehler, Voogd, Scholte, & Engels, 2011;Munafò, Mogg, Roberts, Bradley, & Murphy, 2003). Passive attention to those cues may lead to increases in cigarette craving (Gamito et al, 2014;King, Smith, McNamara, Matthews, & Fridberg, in press), but active attention may facilitate craving reductions (Westbrook et al, 2013;Witkiewitz, Bowen, Douglas, & Hsu, 2013). There are three possible mechanisms that may explain how attentional biases result in craving reduction.…”

The Use of Eye Tracking in Non-Immersive Virtual Reality for Cognitive Assessment

“…Além disso, o feedback positivo dos ARV podem ser diretamente traduzido em situações do mundo real, como, por exemplo, na SLB (Gamito et al, 2015) ou no Programa de Reabilitação assistida por computador e realidade virtual (Lam, Man, Tam, & Weiss, 2006). Em conjunto com os ARV, o Eye Tracking (ET) tem sido uma técnica que tem permitido avaliações mais precisas das funções cognitivas, tanto nas perturbações ansiosas (e.g., Rosa, Arriaga, & Esteves, 2009;, comportamentos aditivos (e.g., Gamito et al, 2014), como em doenças neurodegenerativas (Parkinson, Alzheimer ou demência fronto-temporal) (Cipresso et al, 2011). Pelo facto do sistema visual humano ser limitado, não é possível processar, conscientemente, tudo o que se vê (Rosa, Esteves, & Arriaga, 2010;.…”