Attentional responses to stimuli associated with a reward can occur in the absence of knowledge of their predictive values (original) (raw)
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Detected, selected, and sometimes neglected: cognitive processing of cues in addiction
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2002
It is proposed that potential drug cues are evaluated preattentively, are prioritized, and subsequently trigger somatovisceral, behavioral, and cognitive responses. Throughout, this information processing is subjected to automatized attentional and interpretative biases. These processes can enhance subjective awareness of physiological arousal, action tendencies, and cognitions but can also be inhibitory. Accordingly, different components of cue reactivity do not gain equal access to the limited processing resources necessary to generate experience of craving. I thank M. W. Eysenck for his initial encouragement and support in the writing of this article.
Addiction and Cue-Conditioned Cognitive Processes
2002
We propose an economic theory of addiction based on the premise that cognitive mechanisms such as attention affect behavior independently of preferences. We argue that the theory is consistent with foundational evidence (e.g. from neuroscience and psychology) concerning the nature of decision-making and addiction. The model is analytically tractable, and it accounts for a broad range of stylized facts concerning addiction. It also generates a plausible qualitative mapping from the characteristics of substances into consumption patterns, thereby providing a basis for empirical tests. Finally, the theory provides a clear standard for evaluating social welfare, and it has a number of striking policy implications.
Psychopharmacology, 2006
It has been suggested that drug-paired stimuli (S+) control addictive behaviour by eliciting an explicit mental representation or expectation of drug availability. The aim of the present study was to test this hypothesis by determining whether the behavioural control exerted by a tobacco-paired S+ in human smokers would depend upon the S+ eliciting an explicit expectation of tobacco. In each trial, human smokers (n=16) were presented with stimuli for which attention was measured with an eyetracker. Participants then reported their cigarette reward expectancy before performing, or not, an instrumental tobacco-seeking response that was rewarded with cigarette gains if the S+ had been presented or punished with cigarette losses if the S- had been presented. Following training, participants rated the pleasantness of stimuli. The S+ only brought about conditioned behaviour in an aware group (those who expected the cigarette reward outcome when presented with the S+). This aware group all...
The attribution of incentive salience to a stimulus that signals an intravenous injection of cocaine
Behavioural Brain Research, 2006
A central premise of a number of theories of addiction is that discrete environmental stimuli repeatedly paired with drugs of abuse acquire incentive salience as a result of Pavlovian learning. There is, however, no unequivocal evidence supporting this assumption. Thus, we employed a Pavlovian conditioning procedure known to imbue non-drug reinforcers with incentive salience and extended it to study the effects of intravenous cocaine. Specifically, we examined whether a cue paired with intravenous cocaine administration would come to elicit approach towards it (sign-tracking), even if no behavioral response were required to receive the cue or drug. We found that when a cue was paired with intravenous cocaine delivery (but not when it was unpaired) rats came to approach and investigate the cue, and did so with increasing rapidity. We conclude that Pavlovian learning can imbue drug-paired cues with incentive salience, making them attractive and "wanted" stimuli. Delineating the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for this process will be important for understanding and treating drug addiction.
Behavioural Brain Research, 2008
When a discrete cue (a "sign") is presented repeatedly in anticipation of a food reward the cue can become imbued with incentive salience, leading some animals to approach and engage it, a phenomenon known as "sign-tracking" (the animals are sign-trackers; STs). In contrast, other animals do not approach the cue, but upon cue presentation go to the location where food will be delivered (the goal). These animals are known as goal-trackers (GTs). It has been hypothesized that individuals who attribute excessive incentive salience to reward-related cues may be especially vulnerable to develop compulsive behavioral disorders, including addiction. We were interested, therefore, in whether individual differences in the propensity to sign-track are associated with differences in responsivity to cocaine. Using an autoshaping procedure in which lever (conditioned stimulus) presentation was immediately followed by the response-independent delivery of a food pellet (unconditioned stimulus), rats were first characterized as STs or GTs and subsequently studied for the acute psychomotor response to cocaine and the propensity for cocaine-induced psychomotor sensitization. We found that GTs were more sensitive than STs to the acute locomotor activating effects of cocaine, but STs showed a greater propensity for psychomotor sensitization upon repeated treatment. These data suggest that individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to a discrete reward-related cue, and to approach and engage it, are associated with susceptibility to a form of cocaine-induced plasticity that may contribute to the development of addiction.
Psychophysiological prediction of choice: relevance to insight and drug addiction
Brain, 2012
An important goal of addiction research and treatment is to predict behavioural responses to drug-related stimuli. This goal is especially important for patients with impaired insight, which can interfere with therapeutic interventions and potentially invalidate self-report questionnaires. This research tested (i) whether event-related potentials, specifically the late positive potential, predict choice to view cocaine images in cocaine addiction; and (ii) whether such behaviour prediction differs by insight (operationalized in this study as self-awareness of image choice). Fifty-nine cocaine abusers and 32 healthy controls provided data for the following laboratory components that were completed in a fixed-sequence (to establish prediction): (i) event-related potential recordings while passively viewing pleasant, unpleasant, neutral and cocaine images, during which early (400-1000 ms) and late (1000-2000 ms) window late positive potentials were collected; (ii) self-reported arousal ratings for each picture; and (iii) two previously validated tasks: one to assess choice for viewing these same images, and the other to group cocaine abusers by insight. Results showed that pleasant-related late positive potentials and arousal ratings predicted pleasant choice (the choice to view pleasant pictures) in all subjects, validating the method. In the cocaine abusers, the predictive ability of the late positive potentials and arousal ratings depended on insight. Cocaine-related late positive potentials better predicted cocaine image choice in cocaine abusers with impaired insight. Another emotion-relevant event-related potential component (the early posterior negativity) did not show these results, indicating specificity of the late positive potential. In contrast, arousal ratings better predicted respective cocaine image choice (and actual cocaine use severity) in cocaine abusers with intact insight. Taken together, the late positive potential could serve as a biomarker to help predict drug-related choiceand possibly associated behaviours (e.g. drug seeking in natural settings, relapse after treatment)-when insight (and self-report) is compromised.
Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes
American Economic Review, 2004
We propose a model of addiction based on three premises: (i) use among addicts is frequently a mistake; (ii) experience sensitizes an individual to environmental cues that trigger mistaken usage; (iii) addicts understand and manage their susceptibilities. We argue that these premises find support in evidence from psychology, neuroscience, and clinical practice. The model is tractable and generates a plausible mapping between behavior and the characteristics of the user, substance, and environment. It accounts for a number of important patterns associated with addiction, gives rise to a clear welfare standard, and has novel implications for policy.
Sustained incentive value of heroin-related cues in short- and long-term abstinent heroin users
European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2013
Models of addiction and addiction memory propose that drug-associated cues elicit incentive effects in drug users, which play an important role in maintenance of drug use and relapse. Incentive effects have been demonstrated for smoking and alcohol-related cues but evidence for heroin-related cues has been inconclusive. Furthermore, it is unknown whether appetitive effects of heroin-related cues persist after prolonged abstinence, although heroin addiction is known to have high relapse rates. Therefore, we investigated implicit and explicit valence of heroin-related cues in dependent users at different stages of abstinence using affective startle modulation. In Study I, 15 current heroin users were measured before and after detoxification. Correspondingly, 15 healthy control participants were tested twice at an interval of 14 days. In Study II, 14 long-term abstinent heroin users were additionally measured in a single session. Implicit processing of drug-related stimuli was assessed using affective startle modulation by pictures of heroin and smoking scenes. Explicit reactions were measured using ratings of valence and craving. In contrast to controls, heroin-dependent participants showed a clear reduction of startle response during heroin-related pictures (po0.05). Detoxification did not significantly change their startle responses to heroin-cues. No difference between nondetoxified current and long-term abstinent heroin users was found in implicit reactions to heroincues, whereas explicit measures differed between both groups (all po0.05). After detoxification and even after prolonged abstinence, heroin cues still exert implicit appetitive effects in heroin users. This implies that drug-induced adaptations of reward circuits are long-lasting, resulting in a highly stable addiction memory.