Citation

Charles-Walsh K, Upton DJ, Hester R. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016; 166: 235-242.

Affiliation

Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: hesterr@unimelb.edu.au.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.07.020

PMID

27491815

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Drug dependence is characterized by altered reward processing and poor cognitive control, expressed as a preference for immediate rewards and impaired inhibitory control, respectively. To examine the interaction between reward processing (via the presence or absence of reward) and mechanisms of inhibitory control in drug dependence, the current study used the Monetary Incentive Control Task (MICT) to examine whether a group of opiate dependent persons demonstrated greater difficulty exerting control over immediate rewards compared to neutral stimuli.

METHODS: The MICT is a Go/Stop paradigm that examines inhibitory control over immediate rewards. Performance of 32 opiate dependent individuals was compared to 29 healthy controls.

RESULTS: Opiate users demonstrated poorer inhibitory performance than controls, irrespective of cues signaling immediate reward. Whereas control participants' responses were modulated by probability cues, the opiate group did not show a capacity to up-regulate their cognitive control performance.

CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest a general decrease in cognitive control in opiate dependence, accompanied by a reduced ability to optimally modulate behavior in accordance with external cues. Opiate users and controls did not differ in the interaction between cognitive control and reward. The study highlights important issues for future research to consider when further examining this interaction in drug dependence.

Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en