title: Acquisition of responses to a methamphetamine-associated cue in healthy humans: self-report, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures.
abstract: Drug-associated cues elicit conditioned responses in human drug users, and are thought to facilitate a drug-seeking behavior. Yet, little is known about how these associations are acquired, or about the specificity of the conditioned response modalities. In this study, healthy, nondependent volunteers (N=90) completed a conditioning paradigm in which they received a moderate dose of methamphetamine paired with one stimulus and placebo with another stimulus, each on two separate occasions. Their responses to these cues were measured with a behavioral preference, self-reported 'liking', emotional reactivity, and attentional bias measures, both before and after the conditioning. Following the conditioning procedure, subjects exhibited a behavioral preference, positive emotional reactivity, and attentional bias toward the methamphetamine-associated cue, compared with the placebo stimulus. In addition, subjects who reported greater positive subjective drug effects during the conditioning displayed a more robust conditioning. This work demonstrates that healthy nondependent volunteers readily acquire conditioned responses to neutral stimuli paired with a drug. The procedure has significant value to study individual variation in acquisition of conditioned responses as a possible risk factor for drug taking, and to study the neural basis of conditioned drug responses.
authors.affiliation: 1] Committee on Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA [2] Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Leah M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Mayo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Harriet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Wit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D003463:Cues; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012646:Self Administration; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D008694:Methamphetamine