Drug effects on responses to emotional facial expressions: recent findings

To produce or not to produce? Contrasting the effect of substance abuse in social decision-making situations

Substance use disorders (SUD) have been related to high criminal justice costs, expensive healthcare, social impairment, and decision-making deficits. In non-social decision-making tasks, people with SUD tend to take more risks and choose small immediate rewards than controls. However, few studies have explored how people with SUD behave in social decision-making situations where the resources and profits depend directly on participants' real-time interaction, i.e., social foraging situations. To fulfill this gap, we developed a real-time interaction task to (a) compare the proportion of producers (individuals who tend to search for food sources) and scroungers (individuals who tend to steal or join previously discovered food sources) among participants with SUD and controls with respect to the optimal behavior predicted by the Rate Maximization Model, and (b) explore the relationship between social foraging strategies, prosocial behavior, and impulsivity. Here participants with SUD (n = 20) and a non-user control group (n = 20) were exposed to the Guaymas Foraging task (GFT), the Social Discounting task (SD), and the Delay Discounting task (DD). We found that participants in the control group tended to produce more and obtain higher profits in contrast to substance abuser groups. Additionally, SD and DD rates were higher for scroungers than producers regardless of the group. Our results suggest that producers tend to be more altruistic and less impulsive than scroungers. Knowing more about social strategies and producers' characteristics could help develop substance abuse prevention programs.

Alcohol Use Predicts Face Perception Impairments and Difficulties in Face Recognition

Background: Risky alcohol use is related to a variety of cognitive impairments, including memory and visuo-perceptual difficulties. Remarkably, no prior work has assessed whether usage of alcohol can predict difficulties perceiving facial identity. Objectives: Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether riskier alcohol consumption predicted impairments in face perception and self-reported difficulties in face recognition. Results: Participants (N = 239, male = 77) were over 18 years old and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Alcohol use was assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), while face recognition difficulties were determined by the 20-item Prosopagnosia Index questionnaire (PI20). A subsample of participants (N = 126, male = 51) completed the Cambridge Face Perception task (CFPT) to assess their face perception ability. Multiple linear regressions showed significant models of prediction on both face perception and face recognition when considering AUDIT score and age as predictors. Conclusion: This study suggested, for the first time, that risky alcohol use predicts both poorer visuo-perceptual processing for faces and self-reported difficulties in face recognition.

The brain in social context: A systematic review of substance use and social processing from adolescence to young adulthood

Substance use escalates between adolescence and young adulthood, and most experimentation occurs among peers. To understand underlying mechanisms, research has focused on neural response during relevant psychological processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research provides a wealth of information about brain activity when processing monetary rewards; however, most studies have used tasks devoid of social stimuli. Given that adolescent neurodevelopment is sculpted by the push-and-pull of peers and emotions, identifying neural substrates is important for intervention. We systematically reviewed 28 fMRI studies examining substance use and neural responses to stimuli including social reward, emotional faces, social influence, and social stressors. We found substance use was positively associated with social-reward activity (e.g., in the ventral striatum), and negatively with social-stress activity (e.g., in the amygdala). For emotion, findings were mixed with more use linked to heightened response (e.g., in amygdala), but also with decreased response (e.g., in insula). For social influence, evidence supported both positive (e.g., cannabis and nucleus accumbens during conformity) and negative (e.g., polydrug and ventromedial PFC during peers' choices) relations between activity and use. Based on the literature, we offer recommendations for future research on the neural processing of social information to better identify risks for substance use.

Positive but not negative affect is associated with increased daily drinking likelihood in non-clinical populations: systematic review and meta-analyses

Background: Recent meta-analytical findings indicate that affect regulation plays an important role in alcohol craving, consumption volume, and substance use. However, in view of mixed findings, the affect and drinking likelihood literature remains in need of clarification and consolidation.Objectives: This systematic review with meta-analyses interrogated the results from peer-reviewed studies among non-clinical populations that examined the relationship between daily affective states and intraday likelihood of alcohol consumption.Method: A PRISMA guided search of PsychINFO, PsycARTICLES, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, PubMed, SCOPUS, and JSTOR databases was conducted. Multilevel meta-analyses yielded 11 eligible negative affect studies (2751 participants, 23 effect sizes) and nine studies on positive affect (2244 participants, 14 effect sizes).Results: The pooled associations between intra-day affect and alcohol consumption likelihood revealed no significant association between negative affective state and drinking likelihood (OR = .90, 95% CI [.73, 1.12]) and that positive affect was associated with increased drinking likelihood (OR = 1.17, 95% CI [1.09, 1.27]). Egger's test, P-curve, fail-safe N, and selection models analyses suggested that the obtained results were unlikely to be the product of publication bias and p-hacking alone.Conclusions: Results converge to suggest that, independent of age, affect measure used, and study design, a significant albeit modest relationship between positive affect and alcohol consumption likelihood exists, which does not appear to be the case for negative affect. In conjunction with other recent meta-analyses, current findings help map out a more nuanced understanding of the affect-alcohol/substance use relationship, with potential implications for interventions.

The new psychoactive substances 25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH induce abnormal development in the zebrafish embryo and interact in the DNA major groove

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25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH recreational drugs induces abnormal formation in zebrafish embryos.

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Biophysical and theoretical studies indicate that these drugs have affinity for the DNA major groove.

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The toxicity observed in the zebrafish embryos and DNA interaction may be correlated.

Toxicological effects of 25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH recreational drugs on zebrafish embryos and larvae at the end of 96 h exposure period were demonstrated. 25H-NBOH and 25H-NBOMe caused high embryo mortality at 80 and 100 µg mL⁻¹, respectively. According to the decrease in the concentration tested, lethality decreased while non-lethal effects were predominant up to 10 and 50 µg mL⁻¹ of 25H-NBOH and 25H-NBOMe, respectively, including spine malformation, egg hatching delay, body malformation, otolith malformation, pericardial edema, and blood clotting. We can disclose that these drugs have an affinity for DNA in vitro using biophysical spectroscopic assays and molecular modeling methods. The experiments demonstrated that 25H-NBOH and 25H-NBOMe bind to the unclassical major groove of ctDNA with a binding constant of 27.00 × 10⁴ M⁻¹ and 5.27 × 10⁴ M⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, these interactions lead to conformational changes in the DNA structure. Therefore, the results observed in the zebrafish embryos and DNA may be correlated.

Alcohol and Cannabis Use Disorder Symptom Severity, Conduct Disorder, and Callous-Unemotional Traits and Impairment in Expression Recognition

Background: Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used by adolescents in the United States. Both alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) have been associated with reduced emotion expression recognition ability. However, this work has primarily occurred in adults and has not considered neuro-cognitive risk factors associated with conduct problems that commonly co-occur with, and precede, substance use. Yet, conduct problems are also associated with reduced emotion expression recognition ability. The current study investigated the extent of negative association between AUD and CUD symptom severity and expression recognition ability over and above any association of expression recognition ability with conduct problems [conduct disorder (CD) diagnostic status]. Methods: In this study, 152 youths aged 12.5-18 years (56 female; 60 diagnosed with CD) completed a rapid presentation morphed intensity facial expression task to investigate the association between relative severity of AUD/CUD and expression recognition ability. Results: Cannabis use disorder identification test (CUDIT) scores were negatively associated with recognition accuracy for higher intensity (particularly sad and fearful) expressions while CD diagnostic status was independently negatively associated with recognition of sad expressions. Alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) scores were not significantly associated with expression recognition ability. Conclusions: These data indicate that relative severity of CUD and CD diagnostic status are statistically independently associated with reduced expression recognition ability. On the basis of these data, we speculate that increased cannabis use during adolescence may exacerbate a neuro-cognitive risk factor for the emergence of aggression and antisocial behavior.

Does alcohol affect emotional face processing via interoceptive pathways?

BACKGROUND

Our brain uses interoceptive signals from the body to shape how we perceive emotions in others; however, whether interoceptive signals can be manipulated to alter emotional perceptions is unknown. Alcohol has acute effects both on emotional processing and on the physiological substrates supporting interoception. In this registered report, we examine whether alcohol administration triggers physiological changes that alter interoceptive signals and manipulate emotional face processing. Such knowledge will broaden understanding of the mechanisms by which alcohol affects emotional face processing.

METHODS

Participants (n = 36) will be administered an alcohol or placebo beverage. Cardiovascular physiology will be recorded before and after administration. Participants will complete two behavioral tasks in which they view emotional faces presented in synchrony with different phases of the cardiac cycle (i.e., systole, diastole). This manipulation creates an index of how interoceptive signals amplify emotional face processing.

HYPOTHESES

We hypothesize that, compared to placebo, alcohol administration will disrupt the cardiac amplification of emotional face processing. We further explore whether this disruption depends on the nature and magnitude of changes in cardiovascular physiology after alcohol administration.

Do Social Cognition Deficits Recover with Abstinence in Alcohol-Dependent Patients?

Background

Despite growing evidence of the presence and clinical relevance of deficits in social cognition in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), less is known about the potential of “natural” recovery with abstinence in this neurocognitive domain. This study investigated the abstinence‐based recovery of neurocognitive social abilities in alcohol‐dependent patients (ADP) using a prospective longitudinal design with follow‐up assessment under controlled conditions of abstinence during alcohol dependence inpatient treatment.

Methods

Seventy‐seven participants (42 ADP and 35 healthy controls [HC]) performed social cognition testing, including facial emotion recognition, perspective taking, and affective responsiveness twice (baseline/T1 and follow‐up/T2) during comparable follow‐up periods. Assessment of social cognition in abstinent ADP was conducted at the beginning (T1; within the first 2 weeks) and at the end (T2; within the last 2 weeks) of long‐term (2 months) abstinence‐oriented alcohol dependence inpatient treatment. Only patients abstinent for >14 days (last heavy drinking day >21 days) at baseline (T1) and who remained abstinent at follow‐up (T2) were included.

Results

ADP, who on average were nearly 2 months abstinent at T1, showed poorer social cognition in all 3 areas (emotion recognition, perspective taking, and affective responsiveness) than HC. There was no difference between groups on the change in performance over time, and group differences (ADP vs. HC) remained significant at T2, indicating persistent social cognition deficits in ADP following controlled abstinence during inpatient treatment.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate no natural recovery of social cognition impairments in ADP during an intermediate to long‐term period of abstinence (2+ months), the usual active treatment phase. Research aimed at developing interventions that focus on the improvement of social cognition deficits (e.g., social cognition training) and determining whether they benefit short‐ and long‐term clinical outcomes in AUD seems warranted.

Recreational drugs 25I-NBOH and 25I-NBOMe bind to both Sudlow's sites I and II of human serum albumin (HSA): biophysical and molecular modeling studies

25I-NBOH and 25I-NBOMe simultaneously bind to sites I and II of HSA, which may affect their distribution and effects.

Social cognition impairments in long-term opiate users in treatment

BACKGROUND

Long-term opiate users experience pervasive social difficulties, but there has been surprisingly limited research focused on social-cognitive functioning in this population.

AIM

The aim of this study was to investigate whether three important aspects of social cognition (facial emotion recognition, theory of mind (ToM) and rapid facial mimicry) differ between long-term opiate users and healthy controls.

METHODS

The participants were 25 long-term opiate users who were enrolled in opiate substitution programmes, and 25 healthy controls. Facial emotion recognition accuracy was indexed by responses to 60 photographs of faces depicting the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust). ToM was assessed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, which requires participants to infer mental states of others from partial facial cues. Rapid facial mimicry was assessed by recording activity in the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscle regions while participants passively viewed images of happy and angry facial expressions.

RESULTS

Relative to the control group, the opiate user group exhibited deficits in both facial emotion recognition and ToM. Moreover, only control participants exhibited typical rapid facial mimicry responses to happy facial expressions.

CONCLUSIONS

These data indicate that long-term opiate users exhibit abnormalities in three distinct areas of social-cognitive processing, pointing to the need for additional work to establish how social-cognitive functioning relates to functional outcomes in this group. Such work may ultimately inform the development of interventions aimed at improving treatment outcomes for long-term opiate users.

Early Signs of Emotional Recognition Deficits in Adolescent High-Binge Drinkers

Background: Emotional dysregulation, measured with face recognition tasks, is prevalent in alcohol use disorders (AUD), constituting a risk factor for alcohol use and relapse. It is not clear however whether emotional dysregulation is a by-product of alcohol consumption, or if it can act as a predisposing factor for AUD. Objective: Our aim was to examine early signs of emotional dysregulation in adolescent drinkers. Method: Twenty-four high-school students and 24 university students completed two tasks. On the first one, participants had to gradually increment the emotional content of different faces until they could perceive an emotional expression (emotion perception threshold task). We also examined the propensity to perceive fearful expressions in an emotion identification task. Participants were semantically primed with emotion words (i.e., "fear"), and they then had to indicate whether a neutral-fearful facial composite matched the prime. Results: Using repeated-measures ANOVAS, in the emotion perception threshold task, "happy" faces were the easiest to detect and "sad" ones the hardest. For high school students there was a differential response pattern depending on binge scores, such that High-binge drinkers found it easier to detect a sad face but harder to detect a happy one compared to Low-binge drinkers. In the facial emotion identification task, Low-binge drinkers observed more fearful expressions compared to High-binge drinkers. Conclusions: Differences in emotional processing in young adolescents depending on drinking habits point towards the relevance of emotional dysregulation as an early sign of AUD. These findings could help develop novel diagnostic and treatment tools for young populations.

Alcohol use disorder and cannabis use disorder symptomatology in adolescents are differentially related to dysfunction in brain regions supporting face processing

Despite extensive behavioral evidence of impairments in face processing and expression recognition in adults with alcohol or cannabis use disorders (AUD/CUD), neuroimaging findings have been inconsistent. Moreover, relatively little work has examined the relationship of AUD or CUD symptoms with face or expression processing within adolescents. Given the high prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use during adolescence, understanding how these usage behaviors interact with neural mechanisms supporting face and expression processing could have important implications for youth social and emotional functioning. In this study, adolescents (N = 104) responded to morphed fearful and happy expressions during fMRI and their level of AUD and/or CUD symptoms were related to the BOLD response data. We found that AUD and CUD symptom severity were both negatively related to responses to faces generally. However, whereas this relationship was shown for AUD within ventromedial prefrontal cortex and lingual gyrus, it was shown for CUD within rostromedial prefrontal cortex including anterior cingulate cortex. Additionally, AUD symptom levels were associated with differential responses within medial temporal pole and inferior parietal lobule as a function of expression. These results have potential implications for understanding the social and emotional functioning of adolescents with AUD and CUD symptoms.

Is there a discrete negative symptom syndrome in people who use methamphetamine?

BACKGROUND

Positive psychotic symptoms have consistently been associated with methamphetamine use but the presence of a negative symptom cluster remains unclear. We used exploratory factor analysis to examine whether a discrete negative syndrome could be delineated among methamphetamine users, and to examine the clinical correlates of this syndrome.

METHOD

Participants (N = 154) were people who used methamphetamine at least monthly and did not meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for lifetime schizophrenia. Scores on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for the past month were subject to exploratory factor analysis. Latent class analysis was applied to resultant factor scores to determine whether negative and positive factors were experienced by the same participants. Past-month substance use measures were days of use for each drug type and methamphetamine dependence assessed using the Severity of Dependence Scale.

RESULTS

We articulated a three-factor model including 'positive/activation symptoms' (e.g. suspiciousness, hallucinations, conceptual disorganisation, tension), 'affective symptoms' (e.g. depression, anxiety) and 'negative symptoms' (e.g. blunted affect, motor retardation). Positive-activation and affective symptoms (but not negative symptoms) were positively correlated with past month days of methamphetamine use (r = 0.16; r = 0.25) and severity of dependence (r = 0.24; r = 0.41). Negative symptoms were correlated with heroin (r = 0.24) and benzodiazepine use (r = 0.21). Latent class analysis revealed a three-class model comprising a positive-symptom class (44%, high positive-activation, low negative symptoms), a negative-symptom class (31%, low positive-activation, high negative symptoms), and a low-symptom class (38%, low on all factors).

CONCLUSIONS

A negative symptom syndrome exists among people who use methamphetamine, but this appears related to polysubstance use rather than forming a part of the psychotic syndrome associated with methamphetamine use. Overlooking the role of polysubstance use on negative symptoms may conflate the profiles of methamphetamine-associated psychosis and schizophrenia.

Considering the context: social factors in responses to drugs in humans

BACKGROUND

Drugs are typically used in social settings. Here, we consider two factors that may contribute to this observation: (i) the presence of other people may enhance the positive mood effects of a drug, and conversely, (ii) drugs may enhance the value of social stimuli.

METHODS

We review evidence from controlled laboratory studies with human volunteers, which investigated either of these interactions between social factors and responses to drugs. We examine the bidirectional effects of social stimuli and single doses of alcohol, stimulants, opioids, and cannabis.

RESULTS

All four classes of drugs interact with social contexts, but the nature of these interactions varies across drugs, and depends on whether the context is positive or negative.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol and stimulant drugs enhance the attractiveness of social stimuli and the desire to socialize, and social contexts, in turn, enhance these drugs' effects. In contrast, opioids and cannabis have subtler effects on social interactions and their effects are less influenced by the presence of others. Overall, there is stronger evidence that drugs enhance positive social contexts than that they dampen the negativity of unpleasant social settings. Controlled research is needed to understand the interactions between drugs of abuse and social contexts, to model and understand the determinants of drug use outside the laboratory.

Emotion recognition and its relation to prefrontal function and network in heroin plus nicotine dependence: a pilot study

Many patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) live in a stressful environment, and comorbidity is not uncommon. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying heroin and nicotine dependences and their relationships to social cognition could facilitate behavioral therapy efficacy. We aimed to provide a translational approach that leads to identifying potential biomarkers for opioid use disorder (OUD) susceptibility during recovery. We examined the clinical characters and the relationships between theory of mind (ToM) and executive functions in three groups: heroin plus nicotine-dependent (HND) patients who had remained heroin abstinent ( ≥ 3 months), nicotine-dependent (ND) subjects, and healthy controls (C). The domains included emotion recognition, inhibition, shifting, updating, access, and processing speed. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), ToM task-induced functional connectivity, and brain networks were then explored among 21 matched subjects using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. HND enhanced the severities of anxiety, depression, and hyperactivity. Inhibition domain was impaired in both HND and ND. No impairment in domains of emotion recognition, access, and update was observed. HND demonstrated enhanced rsFC in the medial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and decreased ToM-induced connectivity across the PFC. The right superior frontal gyrus in the OFC (oSFG; x = 22 , y = 77 , and z = 6 ) was associated with working memory and emotion recognition in HND. Using a neuroimaging tool, these results supported the prominent reward-deficit-and-stress-surfeit hypothesis in SUDs, especially OUD, after protracted withdrawal. This may provide an insight in identifying potential biomarkers related to a dynamic environment.

Acute alcohol effects on facial expressions of emotions in social drinkers: a systematic review

Background

As known from everyday experience and experimental research, alcohol modulates emotions. Particularly regarding social interaction, the effects of alcohol on the facial expression of emotion might be of relevance. However, these effects have not been systematically studied. We performed a systematic review on acute alcohol effects on social drinkers' facial expressions of induced positive and negative emotions.

Materials and methods

With a predefined algorithm, we searched three electronic databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Web of Science) for studies conducted on social drinkers that used acute alcohol administration, emotion induction, and standardized methods to record facial expressions. We excluded those studies that failed common quality standards, and finally selected 13 investigations for this review.

Results

Overall, alcohol exerted effects on facial expressions of emotions in social drinkers. These effects were not generally disinhibiting, but varied depending on the valence of emotion and on social interaction. Being consumed within social groups, alcohol mostly influenced facial expressions of emotions in a socially desirable way, thus underscoring the view of alcohol as social lubricant. However, methodical differences regarding alcohol administration between the studies complicated comparability.

Conclusion

Our review highlighted the relevance of emotional valence and social-context factors for acute alcohol effects on social drinkers' facial expressions of emotions. Future research should investigate how these alcohol effects influence the development of problematic drinking behavior in social drinkers.

Preserved Affective Sharing But Impaired Decoding of Contextual Complex Emotions in Alcohol Dependence

BACKGROUND

Prior research has repeatedly shown that alcohol dependence is associated with a large range of impairments in psychological processes, which could lead to interpersonal deficits. Specifically, it has been suggested that these interpersonal difficulties are underpinned by reduced recognition and sharing of others' emotional states. However, this pattern of deficits remains to be clarified. This study thus aimed to investigate whether alcohol dependence is associated with impaired abilities in decoding contextual complex emotions and with altered sharing of others' emotions.

METHODS

Forty-one alcohol-dependent individuals (ADI) and 37 matched healthy individuals completed the Multifaceted Empathy Test, in which they were instructed to identify complex emotional states expressed by individuals in contextual scenes and to state to what extent they shared them.

RESULTS

Compared to healthy individuals, ADI were impaired in identifying negative (Cohen's d = 0.75) and positive (Cohen's d = 0.46) emotional states but, conversely, presented preserved abilities in sharing others' emotional states.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that alcohol dependence is characterized by an impaired ability to decode complex emotional states (both positive and negative), despite the presence of complementary contextual cues, but by preserved emotion-sharing. Therefore, these results extend earlier data describing an impaired ability to decode noncontextualized emotions toward contextualized and ecologically valid emotional states. They also indicate that some essential emotional competences such as emotion-sharing are preserved in alcohol dependence, thereby offering potential therapeutic levers.

The effects of MDMA on socio-emotional processing: Does MDMA differ from other stimulants?

±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a popular recreational drug that enhances sociability and feelings of closeness with others. These "prosocial" effects appear to motivate the recreational use of MDMA and may also form the basis of its potential as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, the extent to which MDMA differs from prototypic stimulant drugs, such as dextroamphetamine, methamphetamine, and methylphenidate, in either its behavioral effects or mechanisms of action, is not fully known. The purpose of this review is to evaluate human laboratory findings of the social effects of MDMA compared to other stimulants, ranging from simple subjective ratings of sociability to more complex elements of social processing and behavior. We also review the neurochemical mechanisms by which these drugs may impact sociability. Together, the findings reviewed here lay the groundwork for better understanding the socially enhancing effects of MDMA that distinguish it from other stimulant drugs, especially as these effects relate to the reinforcing and potentially therapeutic effects of the drug.