Mercuri Kimberly, Terrett Gill, Henry Julie D, Bailey Phoebe E, Curran H Val, Rendell Peter G
School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Campus, Locked Bag 4115, Fitzroy, MDC, VIC, 3065, Australia,
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2015 Apr;232(7):1337-45. doi: 10.1007/s00213-014-3772-2. Epub 2014 Oct 17.
There is considerable literature showing that opiate use is associated with a range of neurocognitive deficits, including deficits in executive control and episodic memory. However, no study to date has assessed whether these neurocognitive difficulties extend to the ability to mentally time travel into one's personal future. This is a surprising omission given that executive control and episodic memory are considered to be critical for episodic foresight. In addition, opiate-related brain changes have been identified in the neural regions that underlie the capacity for episodic foresight.
In the present study, we assessed how episodic foresight is affected in the context of chronic opiate use, as well as the degree to which any deficits are related to difficulties with executive control and episodic memory.
Forty-eight long-term heroin users enrolled in an opiate substitution program and 48 controls were tested. The results showed that, relative to controls, the clinical group exhibited significant impairment in episodic foresight but not episodic memory (as indexed by an adapted version of the Autobiographical Interview). For executive function, the clinical group was impaired on only one of three measures (Inhibition).
These data provide important preliminary evidence that episodic foresight might be particularly susceptible to the neurocognitive effects of opiate use, as the difficulties identified were not secondary to more general executive control or episodic memory impairment. Because a number of widely used relapse prevention protocols require the ability to mentally project into the future, these data have potentially important practical implications in relation to the treatment of substance dependence disorders.
有大量文献表明，阿片类药物的使用与一系列神经认知缺陷有关，包括执行控制和情景记忆方面的缺陷。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究评估这些神经认知困难是否会延伸至对个人未来进行心理时间旅行的能力。鉴于执行控制和情景记忆被认为对情景预见至关重要，这一疏漏令人惊讶。此外，在情景预见能力的神经基础区域已发现与阿片类药物相关的大脑变化。
在本研究中，我们评估了长期使用阿片类药物的情况下情景预见如何受到影响，以及任何缺陷与执行控制和情景记忆困难的相关程度。
对48名参加阿片类药物替代计划的长期海洛因使用者和48名对照组进行了测试。结果显示，相对于对照组，临床组在情景预见方面表现出显著损害，但情景记忆未受影响（通过改编版的自传访谈进行评估）。对于执行功能，临床组仅在三项测量中的一项（抑制）上受损。
这些数据提供了重要的初步证据，表明情景预见可能特别容易受到阿片类药物使用的神经认知影响，因为所发现的困难并非继发于更普遍的执行控制或情景记忆损害。由于许多广泛使用的预防复发方案需要对未来进行心理投射的能力，这些数据对于物质依赖障碍的治疗可能具有重要的实际意义。
