Brain reward function in young people with a Cannabis Use Disorder: an fMRI study
Poster No:
1387
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Arush Honnedevasthana Arun1, Lisa Greenwood2, Mark Schira3, Suraya Dunsford4, Gabrielle Abbott5, Jessica Ramamurthy6, Anastasia Paloubis1, Eugene McTavish1, Nadia Solowij5, Chao Suo7, Valentina Lorenzetti1
Institutions:
1Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, VIC, 2School of Medicine and Psychology, Canberra, ACT, 3School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong , NSW, 4School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom, 5School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 6School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 7BrainPark, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC
First Author:
Arush Honnedevasthana Arun
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Co-Author(s):
Suraya Dunsford
School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth
Plymouth, United Kingdom
School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Jessica Ramamurthy
School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT
School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT
Anastasia Paloubis
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Eugene McTavish
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Valentina Lorenzetti
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC
Introduction:
Cannabis use has been associated with aberrant reward processing, with lower responsivity to non-drug related rewards and blunted affect. These alterations have been ascribed to neuroadaptations within the addiction neurocircuitry. While emerging functional neuroimaging evidence in people who use cannabis highlights brain dysfunction during reward processing, in prefrontal-striatal regions of the addiction neurocircuitry (Beyer et al., 2023; Skumlien et al., 2023; Skumlien et al., 2021), no study to date has examined brain reward function in adults with a cannabis use disorder (CUD), leaving the neuroscientific theories of addiction untested in CUD. We aimed to examine brain reward function in adults with CUD compared to controls in relation to metrics of cannabis use and related problems including affective flattening.
Methods:
We compared if brain reward function in 66 CUD (46 female) differs from 29 controls (20 female) using the Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MIDT)(Oldham, 2018; Hoogendam, 2013). MRI scans were conducted on a 3T GE Architect scanner with a 48-channel head coil. Functional BOLD signals were captured using an echo-planar sequence (TR = 1600 ms, TE = 20 ms, flip angle = 72°, 4 mm slices, 64 × 64 matrix). Data was pre-processed using fMRIPrep 20.2.3 (Esteban et al., 2019) and analysed using SPM12. Participants completed MID task, which assesses reward anticipation and outcome processing. In this task, participants respond as quickly as possible to a visual target to earn monetary rewards. Each trial consists of three phases: (i) cue phase, where a visual cue indicates the potential reward amount or neutral outcome; (ii) target phase, where participants respond to a target stimulus; and (iii) feedback phase, where they receive information on their performance and reward outcome (e.g., successful or unsuccessful). Brain function was examined for the contrasts: (i) anticipating rewards > neutral outcomes, (ii) receiving rewards > neutral outcomes, (iii) receiving rewards > failing to receive a reward. Age and sex were used as covariates. Cluster-level inference was used with a voxel-wise threshold of p < 0.001 uncorrected, and a cluster-level threshold of p < 0.05 FWE-corrected for multiple comparisons . The beta values were extracted from significant regions and were correlated with various behavioral and clinical measures.
Results:
CUD vs control group showed greater activity in the left superior and medial frontal cortices while anticipating rewards vs neutral outcomes left frontal superior and medial (p<0. 001, k=200, Figure 1a); and in the fusiform gyrus, precuneus and parahippocampal regions while successful vs unsuccessful during neutral trials (p<0.001, k=30, Figure 1b). We observed a significant negative correlation between Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) scores and brain activity in the superior and medial frontal regions for the contrast anticipation of reward > neutral outcomes in cannabis users compared to controls (r = -0.219, p = 0.01). For the contrast successful neutral < unsuccessful neutral outcomes, AES scores were positively correlated with brain activity, while Marijuana Withdrawal Checklist (MWC) scores were negatively correlated with brain activity, in the fusiform gyrus, precuneus, and parahippocampal regions (AES: r = 0.219, p = 0.04; MWC: r = -0.243, p = 0.03).
·Significant differences between cannabis users > controls-Fig1(a) for contrast- Anticipation of reward > anticipation of neutral & Fig1(b)- successful neutral < unsuccessful neutral outcomes
Conclusions:
Group differences in prefrontal pathways during reward anticipation are consistent with evidence of prefrontal dysfunction in other substance use disorders (Koob & Volkow, 2010). Group differences during neutral trials suggest alteration of complex aspects of reward processing in CUD (Buckner et al., 2008; Volkow & Morales, 2015). Correlation results suggest that both anticipatory and outcome-related stages of reward processing are disrupted in CUD, with significant links to apathy and withdrawal symptoms. Future work that examines concurrently different aspects of reward processing is required to unpack in detail the reward neurocircuitry of CUD.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Reward and Punishment 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
fMRI Connectivity and Network Modeling 1
Keywords:
Addictions
Data analysis
FUNCTIONAL MRI
MRI
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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