Converging effects of cocaine addiction and sex on neural responses to monetary rewards

• Published in: Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging Vol. 248; pp. 110 - 118
• Main Authors: Konova, Anna B., Moeller, Scott J., Parvaz, Muhammad A., Froböse, Monja I., Alia-Klein, Nelly, Goldstein, Rita Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ireland Ltd 28.02.2016
• Subjects: Addiction; Adult; Brain Mapping - methods; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cocaine; Cocaine-Related Disorders - physiopathology; Craving; Female; Functional MRI; Hippocampus - physiopathology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Monetary reward; Psychiatry; Radiology; Reward; Sex differences; Sex Factors; Sex differences; Cocaine; Functional MRI; Addiction; Monetary reward; Craving
• ISSN: 0925-4927; 1872-7506; 1872-7506
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.01.001

There is some evidence that cocaine addiction manifests as more severe in women than men. Here, we examined whether these sex-specific differences in the clinical setting parallel differential neurobehavioral sensitivity to rewards in the laboratory setting. Twenty-eight (14 females/14 males) cocaine-dependent and 25 (11 females/14 males) healthy individuals completed a monetary reward task during fMRI. Results showed that the effects of cocaine dependence and sex overlapped in regions traditionally considered part of the mesocorticolimbic brain circuits including the hippocampus and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), as well as those outside of this circuit (e.g., the middle temporal gyrus). The nature of this ‘overlap’ was such that both illness and female sex were associated with lower activations in these regions in response to money. Diagnosis-by-sex interactions instead emerged in the frontal cortex, such that cocaine-dependent females exhibited lower precentral gyrus and greater inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) activations relative to cocaine-dependent males and healthy females. Within these regions modulated both by diagnosis and sex, lower activation in the hippocampus and PCC, and higher IFG activations, correlated with increased subjective craving during the task. Results suggest sex-specific differences in addiction extend to monetary rewards and may contribute to core symptoms linked to relapse. •Female and male substance users differ in their course of illness.•Additive effects of cocaine addiction and sex were found in the PCC and hippocampus to money.•Interaction effects of these factors were also found in the IFG.•The pattern of response in the these three regions was related to craving.•Treatments that target these neural disturbances could benefit females especially.