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. 2024 Sep;4(3):100211.
doi: 10.1016/j.ynirp.2024.100211.

Exploratory study of associations between monetary reward anticipation brain responses and mu-opioid signalling in alcohol dependence, gambling disorder and healthy controls

Samuel Turton  1   2 , Louise M Paterson  1 , James Fm Myers  1 , Inge Mick  3 , Chen-Chia Lan  1   4 , John McGonigle  1   5 , Henrietta Bowden-Jones  6   7   8 , Luke Clark  9   10 , David J Nutt  1 , Anne R Lingford-Hughes  1
Affiliations

Exploratory study of associations between monetary reward anticipation brain responses and mu-opioid signalling in alcohol dependence, gambling disorder and healthy controls

Samuel Turton et al. Neuroimage Rep. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Alcohol dependence (AD) and gambling disorder (GD) are common addiction disorders with significant physical and mental health consequences. AD and GD are associated with dysregulated responses to reward which could be due to a common mechanism of dysregulated endogenous opioid signalling. We explored associations between reward anticipation responses, using the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task, and mu-opioid receptor (MOR) availability and endogenous opioid release capacity using [11C]carfentanil positron emission tomography (PET), in 13 AD, 15 GD and 14 heathy control (HC) participants. We also examined differences in MID task reward anticipation responses between AD, GD and HC participants. These were secondary exploratory analysis of data collected to examine differences in MOR PET in addiction. We did not find significant differences in MID win > neutral anticipation BOLD responses compared between participant groups in a priori ROIs (ventral striatum, putamen, caudate) or whole brain analyses. We found no significant correlations between MID win > neutral anticipation BOLD responses and [11C]carfentanil PET measures, except for limited negative correlations between putamen MOR availability and MID win > neutral anticipation BOLD response in AD participants. Previous research has suggested a limited role of endogenous opioid signalling on MID task reward anticipation responses in AD and HCs as these responses are not modulated by opioid receptor blockade and this may explain our lack of significant correlations in HC and AD or GD participants. Our results, particularly the lack of differences in MID win > neutral anticipation BOLD responses across participants groups, may be limited due to only including AD or GD participants who are abstinent or in active treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Prof Luke Clark is the Director of the Centre for Gambling Research at 10.13039/501100005247UBC, which is supported by funding from the Province of British Columbia and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), a Canadian Crown Corporation. The Province of BC government and the BCLC had no role in the design, analysis, or interpretation of the study, and impose no constraints on publishing. LC has received remuneration from the International Center for Responsible Gaming (travel; speaker honoraria; academic services), the Institut fur Glucksspiel und Gesellschaft (Germany; travel; speaker honoraria), GambleAware (UK; academic services), Gambling Research Australia (academic services), Alberta Gambling Research Institute (Canada; travel; academic services), German Foundation for Gambling Research (advisory board; travel). He has been remunerated for legal consultancy by the BCLC. He has not received any further direct or indirect payments from the gambling industry or groups substantially funded by gambling. LC receives an honorarium for his role as Co-Editor-in-Chief for International Gambling Studies from Taylor & Francis, and he has received royalties from Cambridge Cognition Ltd. relating to neurocognitive testing. Prof David Nutt is the CRO of Awakn Life Sciences, chair of DrugScience [UK] and PAREA Europe, a member of the Lundbeck Foundation Neurotorium programme and chair of its editorial board, advisor to the British National Formulary and a member of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy. He has received grants or clinical trial payments from Wellcome Trust, MRC, COMPASS Pathways and Usona, speaking honoraria from Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka and Rovi, has share options in P1vital, Awakn, Psyched Wellness and Neurotherapeutics and is a director of Equasy Enterprises and GABA Labs. He has been an expert witness in a number of legal cases relating to psychotropic drugs, is editor of the Drug Science Policy and Law Journal and has edited/written 38 books, some of which have been purchased by pharmaceutical companies.Prof Anne Lingford-Hughes reports honoraria for speaking engagements and/or attendance at conferences from 10.13039/501100013327Lundbeck, 10.13039/501100013327Lundbeck Institute UK, 10.13039/100004319Pfizer and Servier; she has received research grants or support from Alcarelle and Lundbeck; she is a member of the 10.13039/501100000544British Association for Psychopharmacology and receives honoraria for speaking at educational events and led their ‘addiction’ guidelines, which received support from Archimedes Pharma, 10.13039/501100013327Lundbeck, 10.13039/100004319Pfizer and Schering.The other authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Violin plot (with median) of percent BOLD signal change for win > neutral anticipation contrast in healthy controls, alcohol dependent and gambling disorder participants across 3 ROIs.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Significant (Z > 3.1, p < 0.05) negative correlations between putamen [11C]carfentanil BPND and MID win > neutral anticipation BOLD contrast in alcohol dependent participants (oriented by neurological convention, ‘z’ coordinates are represented in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space.).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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