Bell Spencer, Froeliger Brett
Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States.
Psychology Department, Dixie State University, St. George, UT, United States.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 1;12:592443. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.592443. eCollection 2021.
Nicotine addiction is associated with dysregulated inhibitory control (IC), mediated by corticothalamic circuitry including the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG). Among sated smokers, worse IC task performance and greater IC-related rIFG activity have been shown to be associated with greater relapse vulnerability. The present study investigated the effects of smoking abstinence on associations between IC task performance, rIFG activation, and smoking behavior. Smokers ( = 26, 15 female) completed an IC task (Go/Go/No-go) during fMRI scanning followed by a laboratory-based smoking relapse analog task (SRT) on two visits: once when sated and once following 24 h of smoking abstinence. During the SRT, smokers were provided with monetary rewards for incrementally delaying smoking. A significant main effect of No-go accuracy on latency to smoke during the SRT was observed when collapsing across smoking states (abstinent vs. sated). Similarly, a significant main effect of IC-related activation in rIFG on SRT performance was observed across states. The main effect of state, however, was non-significant in both of these models. Furthermore, the interaction between smoking state and No-go accuracy on SRT performance was non-significant, indicating a similar relationship between IC and lapse vulnerability under both sated and abstinent conditions. The state X rIFG activation interaction on SRT performance was likewise non-significant. whole brain analyses indicated that abstinence resulted in greater IC-related activity in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and insula. Activation during IC in these regions was significantly associated with decreased No-go accuracy. Moreover, greater abstinence induced activity in right MFG during IC was associated with smoking sooner on the SRT. These findings are bolstered by the extant literature on the effects of nicotine on executive function and also contribute novel insights on how individual differences in behavioral and neuroimaging measures of IC may influence relapse propensity independent of smoking state.
尼古丁成瘾与抑制控制（IC）失调有关，由包括右侧额下回（rIFG）在内的皮质丘脑回路介导。在饱腹吸烟者中，较差的IC任务表现和与IC相关的rIFG活动增强已被证明与更高的复吸易感性有关。本研究调查了戒烟对IC任务表现、rIFG激活和吸烟行为之间关联的影响。吸烟者（n = 26，15名女性）在功能磁共振成像扫描期间完成一项IC任务（Go/Go/No-go），随后在两次就诊时完成一项基于实验室的吸烟复吸模拟任务（SRT）：一次是在饱腹时，一次是在戒烟24小时后。在SRT期间，吸烟者因逐渐延迟吸烟而获得金钱奖励。当合并吸烟状态（戒烟与饱腹）时，观察到No-go准确性对SRT期间吸烟延迟时间有显著的主效应。同样，在不同状态下，观察到rIFG中与IC相关的激活对SRT表现有显著的主效应。然而，在这两个模型中，状态的主效应均不显著。此外，吸烟状态与No-go准确性对SRT表现的交互作用不显著，表明在饱腹和戒烟条件下，IC与复吸易感性之间的关系相似。状态X rIFG激活对SRT表现 的交互作用同样不显著。全脑分析表明，戒烟导致右侧额中回（MFG）和脑岛中与IC相关的活动增加。这些区域在IC期间的激活与No-go准确性降低显著相关。此外，IC期间右侧MFG中更大的戒烟诱导活动与SRT上更早吸烟有关。关于尼古丁对执行功能影响的现有文献支持了这些发现，并且还为IC的行为和神经影像学测量中的个体差异如何独立于吸烟状态影响复吸倾向提供了新的见解。
