Cocaine dependence (CD) is defined by the loss of control over drug seeking and use behavior despite clear adverse consequences of drug use. The conceptual framework of the proposed project asserts that cocaine addiction represents a disorder of cognitive control of behavior with definable neural correlates. The objective of this proposal is to use event-related fMRI to test hypotheses related to a neural model of the effect of CD on context-modulated cognitive control.
Aim 1 of the project would use a Go-NoGo task involving human faces to assess the behavioral and neural correlates of the effect of CD on response inhibition.
Aims 2 and 3 would assess the specific impact of conditioned cocaine cues on cognitive control. Studies would assess the effect of CD on the behavioral, neural, psychophysiological and cognitive correlates of attempts to volitionally regulate the drug craving response to mental imagery of cocaine cues (Aim 2). Comparisons at early (7-21 days) vs. prolonged (60-75 days) periods of cocaine abstinence would test further the neural model. Additional studies would use a cocaine counting word Stroop task (cocStroop) to define the behavioral and neural correlates of cognitive interference by cocaine cues (Aim 3).
Aim 4 would use a Prisoners Dilemma game variation as a naturalistic social model to define the neural substrates of a CD-related abnormality in the expression and regulation of social aggression.
Aim 5 would determine whether impairments in cognitive control of behavior represent vulnerability factors for cocaine addiction. The behavioral and neural correlates of response inhibition, cognitive interference and social aggression would be assessed in an """"""""at risk"""""""" sample of cocaine-naive, same-sex siblings of CD probands. The long-term goal of these studies is to develop a novel understanding of the processes related to the acquisition, maintenance and social consequences of cocaine addiction. ? ?
| Derado, Gordana; Bowman, F DuBois; Kilts, Clinton D (2010) Modeling the spatial and temporal dependence in FMRI data. Biometrics 66:949-57 |
| Duncan, Erica; Boshoven, William; Harenski, Keith et al. (2007) An fMRI study of the interaction of stress and cocaine cues on cocaine craving in cocaine-dependent men. Am J Addict 16:174-82 |
