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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 6, 2009, 29(18):6001-6006; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4247-08.2009

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Brief Communications
Dopaminergic Response to Drug Words in Cocaine Addiction

Rita Z. Goldstein,¹ Dardo Tomasi,¹ Nelly Alia-Klein,¹ Jean Honorio Carrillo,^1,2 Thomas Maloney,¹ Patricia A. Woicik,¹ Ruiliang Wang,¹ Frank Telang,^1,3 and Nora D. Volkow^3,4

¹Department of Medical Research, Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973-5000, ²State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4400, ³National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Rockville, Maryland 20857, and ⁴National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland 20892

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Dr. Rita Z. Goldstein, Department of Medical Research, Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Brookhaven National Laboratory, P. O. Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973-5000. Email: rgoldstein{at}bnl.gov

When exposed to drug conditioned cues (stimuli associated with the drug), addicted individuals experience an intense desire for the drug, which is associated with increased dopamine cell firing. We hypothesized that drug-related words can trigger activation in the mesencephalon, where dopaminergic cells are located. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 15 individuals with cocaine use disorders and 15 demographically matched healthy control subjects pressed buttons for color of drug-related versus neutral words. Results showed that the drug words, but not neutral words, activated the mesencephalon in the cocaine users only. Further, in the cocaine users only, these increased drug-related mesencephalic responses were associated with enhanced verbal fluency specifically for drug words. Our results for the first time demonstrate fMRI response to drug words in cocaine-addicted individuals in mesencephalic regions as possibly associated with dopaminergic mechanisms and with conditioning to language (in this case drug words). The correlation between the brief verbal fluency test, which can be easily administered (crucial for clinical studies), and fMRI cue reactivity could be used as a biomarker of neurobiological changes in addiction.

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Received Sept. 5, 2008; revised Feb. 13, 2009; accepted March 19, 2009.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Dr. Rita Z. Goldstein, Department of Medical Research, Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Brookhaven National Laboratory, P. O. Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973-5000. Email: rgoldstein{at}bnl.gov

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Z. Goldstein, N. Alia-Klein, D. Tomasi, J. H. Carrillo, T. Maloney, P. A. Woicik, R. Wang, F. Telang, and N. D. Volkow Anterior cingulate cortex hypoactivations to an emotionally salient task in cocaine addiction PNAS, June 9, 2009; 106(23): 9453 - 9458. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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