van Timmeren T, van Holst RJ, Goudriaan AE. Striatal ups or downs? Neural correlates of monetary reward anticipation, cue reactivity and their interaction in alcohol use disorder and gambling disorder.
J Behav Addict 2023. [PMID:
37133998 DOI:
10.1556/2006.2023.00015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Revised: 01/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Background and aims
Dysfunction of the striatum, a brain region part of the mesolimbic reward system, is a key characteristic of addictive disorders, but neuroimaging studies have reported conflicting findings. An integrative model of addiction points to the presence or absence of addiction-related cues as an explanation for hyper- or hypoactivation, respectively, of the striatum.
Methods
To test this model directly, we investigated striatal activation during monetary reward anticipation in the presence versus absence of addiction-related cues using functional MRI. Across two studies, we compared 46 alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients with 30 matched healthy controls; and 24 gambling disorder (GD) patients with 22 matched healthy controls.
Results
During monetary reward anticipation, hypoactivation of the reward system was seen in AUD individuals compared to HCs. Additionally, a behavioral interaction was seen where gambling cues made participants, across groups, respond faster for bigger, but slower for smaller rewards. However, no striatal differences were seen in response to addiction-related cues between AUD or GD patients and their matched controls. Finally, despite substantial individual differences in neural activity to cue-reactivity and reward anticipation, these measures did not correlate, suggesting that they contribute independently to addiction aetiology.
Discussion and Conclusions
Our findings replicate previous findings of blunted striatal activity during monetary reward anticipation in alcohol use disorder but do not support the idea that addiction-related cues explain striatal dysfunction as suggested by the model.
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