title: Individual differences in anterior cingulate activation associated with attentional bias predict cocaine use after treatment.
abstract: Drug-dependent patients often relapse into drug use after treatment. Behavioral studies show that enhanced attentional bias to drug cues is a precursor of relapse. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined whether brain regions involved in attentional bias are predictive of cocaine use after treatment. Attentional bias-related brain activity was measured-with a cocaine Stroop task-in cocaine-dependent patients during their first week in detoxification treatment and was used to predict cocaine use at 3-month follow-up. The predictive value of attentional bias-related brain activity in a priori defined regions of interest, in addition to other measures such as self-reports of substance severity, craving, and behavioral attentional bias were examined. The results show that craving in the week before treatment and individual variability in attentional bias-related activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) were significant predictors of days of cocaine use at 3-month follow-up and accounted for 45% in explained variance. Brain activity in the dACC uniquely contributed 22% of explained variance to the prediction model. These findings suggest that hyperactive attentional bias-related brain activity in the dACC might be a biomarker of relapse vulnerability as early as in the first week of detoxification treatment. Ultimately, this may help to develop individually tailored treatment interventions to reduce relapse risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Reshmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marhe
authors.forename: Maartje
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luijten
authors.forename: Ben J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: van de Wetering
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.forename: Ingmar H A
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Franken
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012008:Recurrence; D057190:Stroop Test; D016896:Treatment Outcome