Abnormal cue reactivity is a central characteristic of addiction, associated with increased activity in motivation, attention and memory related brain circuits. In this neuroimaging study, cue reactivity in problem gamblers (PRG) was compared with cue reactivity in heavy smokers (HSM) and healthy controls (HC). A functional magnetic resonance imaging event-related cue reactivity paradigm, consi...

OBJECTIVE Enhanced reactivity to substance related cues is a central characteristic of addiction and has been associated with increased activity in motivation, attention, and memory related brain circuits and with a higher probability of relapse. Modafinil was promising in the first clinical trials in cocaine dependence, and was able to reduce craving in addictive disorders. However, its mechan...

A robust finding in eating research is the so-called counterregulation in restrained eaters. This means that while normal subjects eat less during a taste test, after they consumed a preload, restrained eaters consume more. An explanation is that food exposure causes stronger physiological preparatory reactivity in the restrained eaters. This reactivity is experienced as craving and leads to an...

Gender differences have been shown to be related to the course of cocaine dependence and treatment. While previous research has shown cue exposure procedures to be somewhat effective at reducing reactivity of substance dependent individuals to drug related stimuli, the few studies that have examined gender differences in craving and cue-reactivity have yielded equivocal results. We have recentl...

BACKGROUND This pilot feasibility study examined the role of genetics in laboratory-induced cocaine craving. METHODS Thirty-four African American, cocaine-depend- ent male subjects underwent a baseline assessment, cue-exposure session, and genetic analysis. Subjects were classified as either cue-reactive or nonreactive. RESULTS Among single nucleotide polymorphism markers in 13 candidate ge...

BACKGROUND The majority of previous heroin cue-reactivity functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies focused on local function impairments, such as inhibitory control, decision-making and stress regulation. Our previous studies have demonstrated that these brain circuits also presented dysfunctional connectivity during the resting state. Yet few studies considered the relevance of res...

Engaging in novel/exciting ("self-expanding") activities activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, a brain reward pathway also associated with the rewarding effects of nicotine. This suggests that self-expanding activities can potentially substitute for the reward from nicotine. We tested this model among nicotine-deprived smokers who, during fMRI scanning, played a series of two-player cooper...