Cue-induced craving and negative emotion disrupt response inhibition in methamphetamine use disorder: Behavioral and fMRI results from a mixed Go/No-Go task.

BACKGROUND

Drug-related cue-reactivity, dysfunctional negative emotion processing, and response-disinhibition constitute three core aspects of methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). These phenomena have been studied independently, but the neuroscientific literature on their interaction in addictive disorders remains scant.

METHODS

62 individuals with MUD were scanned when responding to the geometric Go or No-Go cues superimposed over blank, neutral, negative-emotional and drug-related background images. Neural correlates of drug and negative-emotional cue-reactivity, response-inhibition and their interactions were estimated, and methamphetamine cue-reactivity was compared between individuals with MUD and 23 healthy controls. Relationships between behavioral characteristics and observed activations were investigated.

RESULTS

Individuals with MUD had longer reaction times and more errors in drug and negative-emotional compared to blank blocks, and more omission errors in drug compared to neutral blocks. They showed higher drug cue-reactivity than controls across prefrontal, fusiform, and visual regions (Z > 3.1, p-corrected<0.05). Response-inhibition was associated with precuneal, inferior parietal, anterior cingulate, temporal, and inferior frontal activations (Z > 3.1, p-corrected<0.05). Response-inhibition in drug cue blocks coincided with higher activations in the visual cortex and lower activations in the paracentral lobule and superior and inferior frontal gyri, while inhibition during negative-emotional blocks led to higher superior parietal, fusiform, and lateral occipital activations (Z > 3.1, p-corrected<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Drug cue-reactivity may impair response inhibition partly through activating dis-inhibitory regions, while temporal and parietal activations associated with response-inhibition in negative blocks suggest compensatory activity. Results suggest that drug and negative-emotional cue-reactivity influence response-inhibition, and the study of these interactions may aid mechanistic understanding of methamphetamine use disorder.