Abstract
It has been proposed that the acquisition of drug seeking is related to the development of conditioned dopamine responses in the ventral striatum. As drug use continues and becomes habit-like, conditioned responses have been shown to shift to the dorsal striatum. Here, using the PET [11C]raclopride method and highly personalized cocaine cues, we report the first evidence in humans of the dorsal dopamine response prior to the onset of addiction.
Highlights
The exact locus of these striatal dopamine responses can change
Cocaine users were interviewed in-depth with the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV-TR to rule out the presence of psychiatric disorders including addictions
On session 1, participants engaged in a motor control task and during a 60-min positron emission tomography (PET) [11C]raclopride scan, watched a 60-min video of someone typing
Summary
Exposure to the cocaine cues decreased [11C] raclopride BPND values with statistically significant effects in the dorsal caudate (peak t = 6.56, MNI coordinates: −17, 12, 14, cluster size = 387 mm3) and dorsal putamen (peak t = 7.31, MNI coordinates: −31, −11, 9, cluster size = 994 mm3) but not in the ventral striatum (Fig. 2) Together, these findings demonstrate that exposure to highly personalized cocaine related cues that lead to the opportunity to use the drug increases extracellular dopamine levels in the dorsal striatum in recreational cocaine users, providing the first evidence that this effect can be seen prior to the onset of a substance use disorder
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