Bhanji Jamil P, Husain Bilal, Stringfellow Jaleesa, Delgado Mauricio R, Ray Suchismita
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
Department of Health Informatics, Rutgers School of Health Professions, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
J Integr Neurosci. 2025 Jul 28;24(7):36969. doi: 10.31083/JIN36969.
The brain's valuation network, including the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), represents the value of rewards and punishments and underpins decision behavior. These neural signals are not fully characterized in individuals recovering from prescription opioid use disorder (POUD).
We tested the hypothesis that neural responses to monetary gain and loss differ in individuals recovering from POUD relative to individuals without prior substance use.
Twenty-three individuals in an early stage of recovery from POUD (abstinent 2-3 weeks after admission to an inpatient treatment facility, no other substance use disorder), and 21 neurotypical controls group individuals without prior history of substance use completed a card guessing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), gaining or losing small monetary amounts after each guess. Whole-brain and valuation network regions of interest (ROI) analyses compared POUD and control group fMRI signal responses to monetary gain and loss outcomes.
Ventral striatum signal change following gain and loss outcomes differed between the POUD and control groups. Specifically, time series analysis suggested that left ventral striatum responses following monetary losses remained elevated for a longer duration in POUD compared with control group participants.
This exploratory, small sample study suggests brain responses to non-drug incentives may differ in POUD compared with neurotypical controls, which has implications for understanding affective responses in individuals recovering from POUD.
大脑的估值网络，包括腹侧纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮质（VMPFC），代表奖励和惩罚的价值，并支撑决策行为。这些神经信号在从处方阿片类药物使用障碍（POUD）中恢复的个体中尚未得到充分表征。
我们检验了这样一种假设，即与没有既往物质使用史的个体相比，从POUD中恢复的个体对金钱得失的神经反应存在差异。
23名处于POUD恢复早期的个体（住院治疗机构入院后戒断2 - 3周，无其他物质使用障碍）和21名无物质使用史的神经典型对照组个体在功能磁共振成像（fMRI）期间完成了一项猜牌任务，每次猜测后获得或损失少量金钱。全脑和估值网络感兴趣区域（ROI）分析比较了POUD组和对照组对金钱得失结果的fMRI信号反应。
POUD组和对照组在得失结果后的腹侧纹状体信号变化存在差异。具体而言，时间序列分析表明，与对照组参与者相比，POUD组在金钱损失后左腹侧纹状体的反应持续升高的时间更长。
这项探索性的小样本研究表明，与神经典型对照组相比，POUD组对非药物激励的大脑反应可能存在差异，这对理解从POUD中恢复的个体的情感反应具有启示意义。
