Perl Ofer, Shuster Anastasia, Heflin Matthew, Na Soojung, Kidwai Ambereen, Booker Natalie, Putnam William C, Fiore Vincenzo G, Gu Xiaosi
Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Nat Ment Health. 2024 Feb;2(2):177-188. doi: 10.1038/s44220-023-00188-9. Epub 2024 Jan 3.
Beliefs have a powerful influence on our behavior, yet their neural mechanisms remain elusive. Here we investigate whether beliefs could impact brain activities in a way akin to pharmacological dose-dependent effects. Nicotine-dependent humans were told that nicotine strength in an electronic cigarette was either 'low', 'medium' or 'high', while nicotine content was held constant. After vaping, participants underwent functional neuroimaging and performed a decision-making task known to engage neural circuits affected by nicotine. Beliefs about nicotine strength induced dose-dependent responses in the thalamus, a key binding site for nicotine, but not in other brain regions such as the striatum. Nicotine-related beliefs also parametrically modulated the connectivity between the thalamus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region important for decision-making. These findings reveal a high level of precision in the way beliefs influence the brain, offering mechanistic insights into humans' heterogeneous responses to drugs and a pivotal role of beliefs in addiction.
信念对我们的行为有着强大的影响，但其神经机制仍不为人知。在此，我们研究信念是否会以类似于药物剂量依赖性效应的方式影响大脑活动。让尼古丁依赖者被告知电子烟中的尼古丁强度为“低”、“中”或“高”，而尼古丁含量保持不变。吸完电子烟后，参与者接受功能性神经成像，并执行一项已知会涉及受尼古丁影响的神经回路的决策任务。关于尼古丁强度的信念在丘脑（尼古丁的一个关键结合位点）引发了剂量依赖性反应，但在纹状体等其他脑区则没有。与尼古丁相关的信念还以参数方式调节了丘脑与腹内侧前额叶皮层（对决策很重要的一个区域）之间的连接。这些发现揭示了信念影响大脑的方式具有高度精确性，为人类对药物的异质性反应提供了机制性见解，以及信念在成瘾中的关键作用。
