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Negative Urgency and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Responses to Alcohol Cues: fMRI Evidence of Emotion‐Based Impulsivity
Author(s) -
Cyders Melissa A.,
Dzemidzic Mario,
Eiler William J.,
Coskunpinar Ayca,
Karyadi Kenny,
Kareken David A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.12266
Subject(s) - ventromedial prefrontal cortex , psychology , impulsivity , mood , functional magnetic resonance imaging , prefrontal cortex , craving , neural correlates of consciousness , behavioral activation , developmental psychology , addiction , neuroscience , clinical psychology , cognition
Background Recent research has highlighted the role of emotion‐based impulsivity (negative and positive urgency personality traits) for alcohol use and abuse, but has yet to examine how these personality traits interact with the brain's motivational systems. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ), we tested whether urgency traits and mood induction affected medial prefrontal responses to alcohol odors (AcO). Methods Twenty‐seven social drinkers (mean age = 25.2, 14 males) had 6 fMRI scans while viewing negative, neutral, or positive mood images (3 mood conditions) during intermittent exposure to AcO and appetitive control (AppCo) aromas. Results Voxel‐wise analyses ( p < 0.001) confirmed [AcO > AppCo] activation throughout medial prefrontal cortex ( mPFC ) and ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) regions. Extracted from a priori mPFC and vm PFC regions and analyzed in O dor ( A c O , A pp C o) × Mood factorial models, A c O activation was greater than A pp C o in left vm PFC ( p < 0.001), left mPFC ( p = 0.002), and right vm PFC ( p = 0.01) regions. Mood did not interact significantly with activation, but the covariate of trait negative urgency accounted for significant variance in left vm PFC ( p = 0.01) and right vm PFC ( p = 0.01) [ A c O > A pp C o] activation. Negative urgency also mediated the relationship between vm PFC activation and both (i) subjective craving and (ii) problematic drinking. Conclusions The trait of negative urgency is associated with neural responses to alcohol cues in the vm PFC , a region involved in reward value and emotion‐guided decision‐making. This suggests that negative urgency might alter subjective craving and brain regions involved in coding reward value.