Neuroaffective Reactivity Profiles Are Associated With Vulnerability to E-cigarette Use

Authors

Francesco Versace
George Kypriotakis
Dustin Pluta

Publication Date

6-1-2023

Journal

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We tested whether neuroaffective responses to motivationally salient stimuli are associated with vulnerability to cue-induced e-cigarette use in e-cigarette naïve adults who smoke daily. We hypothesized that individuals with stronger neuroaffective responses to nicotine-related cues than to pleasant stimuli (the C>P reactivity profile) would be more vulnerable to cue-induced nicotine self-administration than individuals with stronger neuroaffective responses to pleasant stimuli than to nicotine-related cues (the P>C reactivity profile).

METHODS: We used event-related potentials (ERPs, a direct measure of cortical activity) to measure neuroaffective reactivity to pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and nicotine-related cues indicating the opportunity to use an e-cigarette in 36 participants. For each picture category, we computed the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP), a robust index of motivational salience. To identify each individual's neuroaffective reactivity profile we applied k-means cluster analysis on the LPP responses. We compared the e-cigarette use frequency across profiles using quantile regression for counts.

RESULTS: K-means cluster analysis assigned 18 participants to the C>P profile and 18 participants to the P>C profile. Individuals with the C>P neuroaffective profile used the e-cigarette significantly more often than those with the P>C profile. Significant differences in the number of puffs persisted across different quantiles.

CONCLUSIONS: These results support the hypothesis that individual differences in the tendency to attribute motivational salience to drug-related cues underlie vulnerability to cue-induced drug self-administration. Targeting the neuroaffective profiles that we identified with tailored treatments could improve clinical outcomes.

Keywords

Adult, Humans, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Nicotine, Vaping, Emotions, Motivation, Cues, Drug-related cues, Nicotine self-administration, Event-Related Potentials, Late Positive Potential, Motivational Salience, Quantile Regression

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Associated Data

PMID: 37084510