Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Human Brain Activation During Cue-induced Heroin Craving

Objictive To identify the mechanisms, underlying neuroanatomy structure of cue-induced heroin craving in heroin addicts , and to understand specificity of this neuroanatomy . Methods Twenty heroin addicts and twelve comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging with 1.5T MR while view two separate 8-minute films that consisting of 1) four contiguous 120-second segments of alternating outdoor natural scenes and heroin-related films;2) four contiguous 120-second segments of alternating natural scenes and explicit sexual content. Candidate craving sites were identified as those that showed significant activation in the heroin users when viewing the heroin film. These sites were then required to show significantly greater activation when contrasted with comparison subjects viewing the heroin film (population specificity). And those sites showed similar response to other arousing stimuli (e. g., sexually evocative stimuli). Results the heroin film successfully induced a craving state in heroin users. (t=6.23, p<0.001). Brain regions that satisfied these criteria were largely left lateralized and included the frontal lobe (medial and middle frontal gyri,bilateral inferior frontal gyrus), parietal lobe ( bilateral inferior parietallobule ), insula, hippocampus, callosume, and limbic lobe(anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus ). Of the 14 regions identified as putative craving sites, just five (anterior cingulate, right inferior parietal lobule, and the caudate/lateral dorsal nucleus) showed significantly greater activation during the heroin-taking film than during the sex film in the heroin users, which suggests that heroin cues activated...