Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb:85:70-77.
doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2017.10.007. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Sustained opioid antagonism modulates striatal sensitivity to baby schema in opioid use disorder

An-Li Wang  1 , Steven B Lowen  2 , Igor Elman  3 , Zhenhao Shi  4 , Victoria P Fairchild  4 , Alexander Bouril  4 , Ruben C Gur  5 , Daniel D Langleben  5
Affiliations

Sustained opioid antagonism modulates striatal sensitivity to baby schema in opioid use disorder

An-Li Wang et al. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Chronic opioid misuse is associated with reduced sensitivity to natural rewards and social motivation deficits that include impaired caregiving. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these deficits and their response to treatment are not well understood. Baby schema (Kindchenschema) is a set of juvenile physical features, which is perceived as "cute" and triggers motivation for caregiving. Recent studies suggest that the "baby schema effect" is mediated by the brain "reward" network. We studied the impact of opioid antagonist treatment on the baby schema response in patients with opioid use disorder.

Methods: Forty-seven (24 F) recently detoxified patients with opioid use disorder underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing infant portraits that were parametrically manipulated for baby schema content and rating them for cuteness, at baseline and during treatment with the injectable extended release opioid antagonist naltrexone (XRNTX). The study was not placebo-controlled.

Results: The behavioral effect of baby schema, indexed by "cuteness" ratings, was present and unaffected by XRNTX. The brain response to baby schema was absent at baseline, but present in the bilateral ventral striatum after two weeks of XRNTX treatment. The decline in self-reported craving for opioids was positively correlated with the brain fMRI response to baby schema in the bilateral ventral striatum.

Conclusions: Opioid antagonist treatment modulated the brain reward system response to a marker of caregiving motivation in patients with opioid use disorder. Neural response to baby schema may offer a novel probe of social motivation and affiliative behaviors in this population.

Keywords: Baby schema; Caregiving; Cuteness; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Naltrexone; Opioid; Social motivation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Paradigm of the Baby Schema Task.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Images: Brain response to baby faces across all baby schema levels (High, Unmanipulated and Low) before naltrexone treatment (Pre-XRNTX) shows greater activation in the bilateral ventral striatum compared to brain response during treatment (On-XRNTX). Bar charts: Percent BOLD fMRI signal change (s) in the ventral striatum as function of baby schema in the Pre- and On-XRNTX sessions respectively. Error bars presented standard error of the mean (SEM).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Positive correlations between decline in craving (i.e. Pre-XRNTX craving – On-XRNTX craving) and the brain response to High baby schema faces in bilateral ventral striatum during XRNTX treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alcaro A, Panksepp J. The SEEKING mind: Primal neuro-affective substrates for appetitive incentive states and their pathological dynamics in addictions and depression. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 2011 doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.03.002. S0149-7634(11)00045-5 [pii] - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barr CS, Schwandt ML, Lindell SG, Higley JD, Maestripieri D, Goldman D, … Heilig M. Variation at the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) influences attachment behavior in infant primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008;105(13):5277–5281. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0710225105. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bilkei-Gorzo A, Mauer D, Michel K, Zimmer A. Dynorphins regulate the strength of social memory. Neuropharmacology. 2014;77:406–413. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2013.10.023. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bridges RS, Grimm CT. Reversal of morphine disruption of maternal behavior by concurrent treatment with the opiate antagonist naloxone. Science. 1982;218(4568):166–168. - PubMed
    1. Buchel C, Holmes AP, Rees G, Friston KJ. Characterizing stimulus-response functions using nonlinear regressors in parametric fMRI experiments. Neuroimage. 1998;8(2):140–148. - PubMed

Publication types