Cue Exposure Triggers Inhibitory Deficits in Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Inhibitory deficits contribute to impulsive drug-seeking behavior in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). Whether abstinent individuals with MUD exhibit greater cognitive disinhibition when the suppressed response is associated with drug-related images is not fully known. This study evaluated the potency of drug-associated cue exposure in this process. METHOD: We recruited 54 abstinent men with MUD and 46 healthy control (HC) subjects to complete a novel go/no-go task in which drug-associated cues were presented in 240 trials. RESULTS: Upon exposure to drug-associated cues, the numbers of commission errors increased significantly only in the abstinent MUD group (p < .001), and the abstinent MUD group produced higher levels of commission errors than the HC group (p = .009). When drug-associated cues were not available (in scrambled trials), the abstinent MUD group produced similar levels of commission errors when compared with the HC group (p = .336). The reaction times in drug cue exposure trials were longer than in scrambled trials across groups (p < .001), whereas the abstinent MUD group produced shorter reaction times than HCs, regardless of trial conditions (p = .004). CONCLUSIONS: The novel go/no-go task is a useful method for detecting impulsivity in abstinent individuals with MUD. Cue exposure triggers impairment of inhibitory control in individuals with MUD at abstinence.

Distraction and expressive suppression strategies in down-regulation of high- and low-intensity positive emotions.

Emotion intensity is important for emotional regulation process. The studies in this literature, however, have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative emotions. Few studies have examined the down-regulation of positive emotions. Distraction and expressive suppression belong to disengagement strategies, which direct coping efforts away from emotions. Participants are more likely to select distraction and expressive suppression when motivated to down-regulate their emotions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the impact of emotional intensity on down-regulating positive emotions via distraction and expressive suppression. The event-related potentials (ERPs) of college students were recorded while they were instructed to down-regulate positive emotions using expressive suppression or distraction versus free viewing when exposed to high- and low-intensity pleasant stimuli. Subsequently, participants were instructed to rate their positive experience using a 9-point scale. Supporting our predictions, behavioral results showed that both strategies could dramatically reduce high-intensity positive experience relative to viewing, and distraction led to a larger reduction of high-intensity positive experience than expressive suppression. Both strategies could not decrease low-intensity positive experience relative to viewing. ERP results showed that distraction successfully attenuated the early (500-700 ms) and late (700-1500 ms) stage of late positive potential (LPP) in high-intensity, and in low-intensity it modulated the early (but not late) LPP relative to viewing. Unexpectedly, expressive suppression effectively attenuated the early and late LPP in high- and low-intensity relative to viewing. The findings suggest that expressive suppression and distraction can effectively down-regulate positive emotions; however, distraction is more susceptible to emotional intensity and time.

The Craving and Excitement of Social Networking Sites Addicts: Based on Cue-Reactivity.

Everyone benefits from social networking as a daily tool, but there are potential addictions. However, little is known about the craving and excitability of social networking sites addiction, and mode of change in psychological craving. The study consisted of two experiments that used a cue-reactivity paradigm to study the cravings and excitement of social networking sites (SNSs) addiction and the changing regulars in cravings. Sixty subjects were divided into a high-score group and a low-score group. In Experiment 1, all subjects evaluated word clues. The results showed that the SNS-related clues only induced the craving and excitability of the high-score group, but not the low-score group, and the craving fluctuated. Furthermore, in Experiment 2, image clues were used. The results showed that the craving induced by an image clue is significantly higher than the craving induced by a word clue, and there is no difference in excitability. Taken together, our findings suggest the SNS-related stimulation, especially image clues, could significantly induce subjects for the craving and excitability of social networks, and the craving fluctuates.