Reduced response inhibition after exposure to drug-related cues in male heroin abstainers.

Abstract

Deficits in response inhibition associated with heroin use could last several months after abstinence in heroin users, and their response inhibition can also be interfered with task-irrelevant drug-related cues. However, it is unclear whether exposure to drug-related cues affects subsequent response inhibition in heroin users following abstinence. The present study aimed to investigate how drug-related cues with different durations between stimulus presentations, referred to as stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), affect subsequent response inhibition in heroin abstainers (HAs) with different length of abstinence. Sixty-seven male HAs performed a modified Go/NoGo task in which a motor response to frequent Go targets and no response to rare NoGo targets were required and a Go or NoGo target was displayed after either a heroin-related or a neutral picture presented for the 200ms and 600ms SOAs. The HAs responded significantly faster to Go targets following the neutral pictures for the 600ms SOA compared to other conditions. They also made more commission errors following heroin-related pictures compared to neutral pictures regardless of the SOAs. The shorter-term HAs made more commission errors compared to the longer-term HAs following the 200ms SOA, and it was only a trend when the SOA was 600ms. Additionally, negative correlations between the duration of current abstinence and commission errors were observed following cues with the 200ms SOA. Impaired response inhibition in HAs can be improved through protracted drug abstinence. However, that effect can be reduced by exposure to drug-related cues, which may increase the risk of relapse.