Bobo Su1, Sha Wang1, Alexander Sumich2, Shaomei Li1, Ling Yang3, Yueyue Cai1, Grace Y Wang4. 1. School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, 967 Anning East Road, Lanzhou, People's Republic of China. 2. Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. 3. School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, 967 Anning East Road, Lanzhou, People's Republic of China. yangling@nwnu.edu.cn. 4. Department of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology, 90 Akoranga Drive, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand. gwang@aut.ac.nz.
Abstract
RATIONALE: Chronic heroin use can cause deficits in response inhibition, leading to a loss of control over drug use, particularly in the context of drug-related cues. Unfortunately, heightened incentive salience and motivational bias in response to drug-related cues may exist following abstinence from heroin use. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to examine the effect of drug-related cues on response inhibition in long-term heroin abstainers. METHODS: Sixteen long-term (8-24 months) male heroin abstainers and 16 male healthy controls completed a modified two-choice oddball paradigm, in which a neutral "chair" picture served as frequent standard stimuli; the neutral and drug-related pictures served as infrequent deviant stimuli of different conditions respectively. Event-related potentials were compared across groups and conditions. RESULTS: Our results showed that heroin abstainers exhibited smaller N2d amplitude (deviant minus standard) in the drug cue condition compared to the neutral condition, due to smaller drug-cue deviant-N2 amplitude compared to neutral deviant-N2. Moreover, heroin abstainers had smaller N2d amplitude compared with the healthy controls in the drug cue condition, due to the heroin abstainers having reduced deviant-N2 amplitude compared to standard-N2 in the drug cue condition, which reversed in the healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that heroin addicts still show response inhibition deficits specifically for drug-related cues after longer-term abstinence. The inhibition-related N2 modulation for drug-related could be used as a novel electrophysiological index with clinical implications for assessing the risk of relapse and treatment outcome for heroin users.
RATIONALE: Chronic heroin use can cause deficits in response inhibition, leading to a loss of control over drug use, particularly in the context of drug-related cues. Unfortunately, heightened incentive salience and motivational bias in response to drug-related cues may exist following abstinence from heroin use. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to examine the effect of drug-related cues on response inhibition in long-term heroin abstainers. METHODS: Sixteen long-term (8-24 months) male heroin abstainers and 16 male healthy controls completed a modified two-choice oddball paradigm, in which a neutral "chair" picture served as frequent standard stimuli; the neutral and drug-related pictures served as infrequent deviant stimuli of different conditions respectively. Event-related potentials were compared across groups and conditions. RESULTS: Our results showed that heroin abstainers exhibited smaller N2d amplitude (deviant minus standard) in the drug cue condition compared to the neutral condition, due to smaller drug-cue deviant-N2 amplitude compared to neutral deviant-N2. Moreover, heroin abstainers had smaller N2d amplitude compared with the healthy controls in the drug cue condition, due to the heroin abstainers having reduced deviant-N2 amplitude compared to standard-N2 in the drug cue condition, which reversed in the healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that heroin addicts still show response inhibition deficits specifically for drug-related cues after longer-term abstinence. The inhibition-related N2 modulation for drug-related could be used as a novel electrophysiological index with clinical implications for assessing the risk of relapse and treatment outcome for heroin users.
Authors: Jixin Liu; Jimin Liang; Wei Qin; Jie Tian; Kai Yuan; Lijun Bai; Yi Zhang; Wei Wang; Yarong Wang; Qiang Li; Liyan Zhao; Lin Lu; Karen M von Deneen; Yijun Liu; Mark S Gold Journal: Neurosci Lett Date: 2009-05-18 Impact factor: 3.046