Poster No:
390
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Albert Bellmunt Gil1, Joonas Majuri2, Lauri Nummenmaa3, Sami Helin1, Sarita Forsback1, Johan Rajander4, Valtteri Kaasinen1, Juho Joutsa1
Institutions:
1University of Turku, Turku, Turku, 2University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 3Turku PET Centre, Turku, Turku, 4Åbo akademi, Turku, Turku
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Abnormal striatal cue reactivity is one of the neurobiological hallmarks of substance use disorders (SUDs). Cue reactivity is associated with relapse, prompting efforts to target its underlying mechanisms for therapeutic interventions. However, the neural correlates of cue reactivity in behavioral addictions, such as gambling disorder (GD), remain poorly understood. Here we investigated striatal cue reactivity and its associations with neurotransmitters in individuals with GD using multimodal imaging.
Methods:
Thirteen subjects with GD and 16 healthy controls (HC) underwent fMRI using a block-design consisting of three different types of visual stimuli: gambling-related, erotic, and neutral videos. The subjects also underwent brain PET imaging with three radiotracers to assess dopamine ([18F]FDOPA), opioid ([11C]carfentanil) and serotonin ([11C]MADAM) function.
Results:
GD subjects showed a significantly greater BOLD response in the dorsal striatum compared to HC when viewing gambling-related versus neutral videos (pFWE<0.05). Enhanced cue-reactivity was specific to gambling, as there were no significant differences between the groups with natural reward cues (erotic vs. neutral videos). The dorsal and ventral striatum BOLD responses to gambling videos were coupled in HC (r=0.7, p=0.003) but not in GD (r=-0.1, p=0.75; group difference p=0.008). In GD, dorsal striatal BOLD response to gambling cues correlated with [11C]carfentanil, but not with [18F]FDOPA or [11C]MADAM, binding (r = 0.8, p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
GD is characterized by increased gambling cue-induced activity in the dorsal striatum, which is linked to mu-opioid receptor availability. The findings highlight the potential role of the mu-opioid system in mediating cue-reactivity in behavioral addictions.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI)
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Subcortical Structures 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
PET
Keywords:
Addictions
Basal Ganglia
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Neurotransmitter
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
PET
Functional MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
Other, Please list
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fmriprep
Provide references using APA citation style.
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