An Increase in Tobacco Craving Is Associated with Enhanced Medial Prefrontal Cortex Network Coupling

Amy C Janes,Scott E Lukas,Stacey Farmer,Blaise Deb Frederick,Lisa D Nickerson,Satoru Hayasaka

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088228

Amy C Janes, Scott E Lukas + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088228

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Feb 5, 2014
Citations: 88	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: McLean Hospital, Imaging Center, Harvard University

Abstract

Craving is a key aspect of drug dependence that is thought to motivate continued drug use. Numerous brain regions have been associated with craving, suggesting that craving is mediated by a distributed brain network. Whether an increase in subjective craving is associated with enhanced interactions among brain regions was evaluated using resting state functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) in nicotine dependent participants. We focused on craving-related changes in the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) network, which also included the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) extending into the ventral striatum. Brain regions in the OMPFC network are not only implicated in addiction and reward, but, due to their rich anatomic interconnections, may serve as the site of integration across craving-related brain regions. Subjective craving and resting state fMRI were evaluated twice with an ∼1 hour delay between the scans. Cigarette craving was significantly increased at the end, relative to the beginning of the scan session. Enhanced craving was associated with heightened coupling between the OMPFC network and other cortical, limbic, striatal, and visceromotor brain regions that are both anatomically interconnected with the OMPFC, and have been implicated in addiction and craving. This is the first demonstration confirming that an increase in craving is associated with enhanced brain region interactions, which may play a role in the experience of craving.

Highlights

Craving, or the strong desire to use an abused substance, is a key component of drug addiction, and is a motivator for drug use [1,2]
Identified resting state network The orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) network common to all subjects included the ventromedial PFC (Broadmann area (BA) 10), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; BA 11), subgenual ACC (BA 24, 32), and the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens extending into the adjacent caudate
As craving rose, increased connectivity was found between the OMPFC network difference map and several brain regions including: left dorsal regions of the superior frontal gyrus (BA 10) extending into the dACC (BA 24, 32) and left frontal pole (BA 10), bilateral supplementary motor area (BA 6), bilateral ventral striatum, bilateral caudate, bilateral ventral occipital cortex (BA 18, 19), right thalamus, right hippocampus and parahippicampal gyrus, and left superior cerebellum

Summary

Introduction

The strong desire to use an abused substance, is a key component of drug addiction, and is a motivator for drug use [1,2]. The relationship between craving and brain-network interactions can be evaluated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected at rest. While previous task-related fMRI research has identified discrete brain regions associated with craving [6,8], resting-state fMRI allows for the evaluation of brain function at a more distributed network level. To evaluate associations between craving and network-level brain changes, we collected resting-state fMRI and subjective craving data in nicotine-dependent smokers at two time points approximately one hour apart. Over this one-hour time period, participants reported a significant rise in craving as measured by the brief questionnaire of smoking urges (QSU) [15]

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