Executive Dysfunction in Cocaine Addiction: Evidence for Discordant Frontal, Cingulate, and Cerebellar Activity

By R. Hester, Hugh Garavan. Journal of Neuroscience, 2004

655 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using a GO-NOGO response inhibition task in which working memory (WM) demands can be varied, we demonstrate that the compromised abilities of cocaine users to exert control over strong prepotent urges are associated with reduced activity in anterior cingulate and right prefrontal cortices, two regions thought to be critical for implementing cognitive control. Furthermore, unlike drug-naive controls, and opposite to the anterior cingulate pattern, cocaine users showed an over-reliance on the left cerebellum, a compensatory pattern previously seen in alcohol addiction. The results indicate that cocaine users find it difficult to inhibit their own actions, particularly when WM demands, which have been shown previously to increase during cue-induced craving for the drug, are increased. The results reveal a neuroanatomical basis for this dysexecutive component to addiction, supporting the suggested importance cognitive functions may play in prolonging abuse or predisposing users toward relapse.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9b2205e33649117edc20009249b96543f6a8096

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Citations in the corpus

Cerebellar networks with the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia. (2013, background): “For example, neuroimaging studies reported that cognitive deficits in addicted individuals were associated with abnormal cerebellar activity [89].”
Treating Drug Abuse and Addiction in the Criminal Justice System: Improving Public Health and Safety (2009, background): “Disruption of these circuits impairs the addicted person’s ability to inhibit intentional actions or to control strong emotions and desires and also increases the likelihood that the individual will have difficulties making adaptive decisions.(60,61) Addiction also decreases sensitivity in the rewar”
Dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex in addiction: neuroimaging findings and clinical implications (2011, background): “In another study, this inhibitory behavioural deficit in cocaine users was exacerbated by a higher working-memory load; again, dACC hypoactivation was associated with deficient task performanc”
The role of impulsive behavior in drug abuse (2008, background): “The results of the studies described above could also have been explained by a third factor (H3) such as cognitive deficits in working memory (Hester and Garavan 2004) and decision-making (Bechara et al.”
Enhancing Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation Via Mindful Yoga (2015, background): “…self-regulation has been associated with a host of negative outcomes including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), school failure, addiction/ substance abuse, and anxiety and depression (Diamond 2005; Hester and Garavan 2004; Ivanov et al. 2008; Kyte et al. 2005; Moffitt et al. 2011).”
Impulsivity, compulsivity, and top-down cognitive control. (2011, neutral): “There is also considerable evidence of impulsive responding with such tasks as the SSRT or Go/NoGo task in alcoholics (Noe¨l et al., 2007), cocaine (Fillmore and Rush, 2002; Hester and Garavan, 2004), and methamphetamine (Monterosso et al., 2005) abusers.”
Impulsivity as a vulnerability marker for substance-use disorders: review of findings from high-risk research, problem gamblers and genetic association studies. (2008, background): “Neuropsychological studies On neuropsychological measures, robust findings have been reported for response inhibition: cocaine users have increased commission errors on Go–No Go tasks (Hester and Garavan, 2004; Kaufman et al., 2003; Moeller et al., 2004; Verdejo-Garcia, A.J., et al., 2007), increase”
Resting state functional connectivity in addiction: Lessons learned and a road ahead (2012, background): “Such a model would account, at least in part, for the coincidence of cognitive deficits observed across drug addicted populations, typically assessed during acute abstinent states (Forman et al., 2004; Goldstein et al., 2004; Hester and Garavan, 2004; Hester et al., 2007, 2009; Sofuoglu, 2010).”
Insights into the neural basis of response inhibition from cognitive and clinical neuroscience. (2009, neutral): “…show higher delayed discounting rates (Coffey et al., 2003; Simon et al., 2007), are slower or poorer at motor inhibition (Fillmore and Rush, 2002; Hester and Garavan, 2004; Colzato et al., 2007), make riskier decisions on various gambling tasks (Bartzokis et al., 2000; Monterosso et al., 2001;…”
Neural mechanisms underlying the vulnerability to develop compulsive drug-seeking habits and addiction (2008, background): “But suboptimal prefrontal cortical, including OFC and anterior cingulate cortex, function ( Volkow & Fowler 2000; Kaufman et al. 2003; Hester & Garavan 2004) may also represent a pre-existing vulnerability trait that results in poor decisions and/or a lack of sensitivity to the consequences of such…”
Functional Topography of the Cerebellum in Verbal Working Memory (2010, background): “…cocaine users and matched controls performing a Sternberg-like task of response inhibition revealed that the cocaine users increased activity in the left superior cerebellum in association with increased working memory load (i.e., greater number of items to hold in mind) (Hester and Garavan 2004).”