Cue Effects in Human Addiction: Pavlovian to Instrumental Transfer

Summary

Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) have to cope with drug-related cues and contexts, which can affect instrumental drug seeking as shown with Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigms in animals and humans. The investigators aimed to investigate the impact of acute and chronic stress on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT), how PIT it is associated with cognitive control abilities and whether such effects predict losing vs. regaining control in subjects with AUD. Moreover, the investigators aimed to develop a novel full transfer task that assesses both, general and specific PIT to investigate whether specific PIT differs between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and control subjects.

Conditions

• Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)
• Alcoholism
• Substance Use Disorders
• Smoking, Tobacco
• Stress Reaction
• Stress

Interventions

BIOLOGICAL

fMRI imaging (BOLD)

Will be used to investigate neural correlates of PIT effects by measuring the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response of neural activation in the mesolimbic system.

BIOLOGICAL

sMRI (structure)

Will be used to investigate neural correlates of PIT effects by identifying abnormalities in cortical gray and white matter volume.

BEHAVIORAL

Trier Social Stress Test

Will be used to assess the effect of acute stress induction on behavioral and neural PIT effects. The induced stress is generated in a social context, where the participants are asked to prepare a job interview for their dream job and to present it in front of a three-member jury.

BEHAVIORAL

PIT paradigm

The paradigm consists of four parts: In the first part, an instrumental learning task is completed in which subjects must learn which stimuli require a response and which do not. In the second part, a classical (Pavlovian) conditioning task is then completed in which subjects learn by passive viewing which stimuli are associated with certain amounts of money. The third part measures to which instrumental responses (learned in Part 1) are modulated by the presentation of the classically conditioned stimuli (learned in Part 2). At the same time drug-associated stimuli are presented in the background measuring to which extent they conflict with the learned instrumental behavior. In the last part, query trials are implemented in which the participants have to choose between two pictures to assess the relative cue value.

BEHAVIORAL

Counting Stroop task

Will be used to assess interference at stimulus level. Here either one, two, three or four identical digits from 1 to 4 are shown. Number and denotation of digits are either congruent (1, 22, 333, 4444; 88 trials) or incongruent (111, 2222, 3, 4444; 88 trials). Subjects have to indicate how many digits were shown

BEHAVIORAL

No-go Simon task

Will be used to measure interference at the response level and response inhibition. We will show arrows either pointing to the left or right. The arrow can either be shown on the left or the right side of the display. In congruent trials, direction and position are the same, whereas they differ in incongruent trials. Participants have to indicate the direction of the arrow and ignore the position.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Stop Signal Task

Will be used to examine inhibitory control. The participants tap the left and right side of the screen to smash two falling fruits. When the fruits pass two circles, subjects are required to tap both sides of the screen. In "stop trials" one of the fruits turns brown (rotten), indicating the corresponding side of the screen should not be tapped.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

blood samples

for genetic and epigenetic testing, especially for exploratory outcome prediction using polygenic risk scores.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

questionnaires for chronic stress

* Perceived Stress Scale * Social Readjustment Rating Scale * Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

hair samples

Hair cortisol measurement (3 cm hair segments) will be used to assess chronic stress.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

saliva samples

Assessing acute stress effects in AUD.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

EMA assessment

We will use smartphones with additional mobile sensors (wearables), which will be used to measure physical activity, data on location (GPS), geolocation-based triggering of e-Diaries, self-reported stress reactivity, cue exposure (encounters with drug-related stimuli in real life), drug craving, impulsivity and drug consumption (priming doses, binges and continuous use of all drugs of abuse).

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

clinical diagnostic

SKID-I Interview neurocognitive and psychopathological testing

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Technische Universität Dresden

  collaborator OTHER

• Charite University, Berlin, Germany

  lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-11-24

Primary Completion

2024-12-31

Completion

2024-12-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations