Cravings

I

• I

Research into craving

• reliabity & validity in this research is hard

• we want to mesure this in a way that it is quantified consitently across individuals, drugs, ect

• we want mesures that accuratly quanify the subjective experiance so that we can compare severity and predictive relationships across individuals

• even the most physiolgical approches (cue elicited craving) often rely on subjective reports

Cue- elcited craving

• present a cue

  • alcohol scent

• Ask abstinent addicts to report subjective craving

• Can do this in MRI

  • see changes to the subjective reports of craving

• For alcohol

  • cerebellum

  • amygdala

Visual cue-elcited responses

• Present images of alcohol & compare neural responses to scambled control images

  • changes in visual system (fusimform)

EEG can also shed light on craving

• We see those same elevated (higer frequancy) shifts in activity that are assoicated with craving

  • cocaine

  • Nicotine

• EVvent related potental sizes are also realted to craving

  • larger ERP’s assocated with attention are assocated to increased craving

• Event-relates potential (ERP)

  • tracks electrical potential on scalp

  • EEG segment is a time locked sig for each presentation

  • Average ERP waveform, average over those signals

Stories with cues embadded

• read a story to a particpant that relfects the contex the would have used addciion in

  • include personal details disigned to elcit craving

How sepecific are these changes

• Are the increased responses in the addiction ciriut specific to drug cues

  • sugar

  • sex

  • fave foods

• Yes

  • comparing activity to other similar shows increased reponsiveness in addiction circut

Are these responses consious/attention dependent

• backwards masking suggest no