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Poster C130 in Poster Session C - Friday, August 9, 2024, 11:15 am – 1:15 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
Neural Correlates of Risk and Reward Signals in Smokers Using an MRI-Compatible Vaping Device: A Preliminary Study
Eunhwi Lee1 (), Jeung-Hyun Lee1, Joshua W Brown2, Woo-Young Ahn1; 1Seoul National University, 2Indiana University
Reward and risk processing are fundamental for decision-making, which can be altered by addiction. While it’s crucial to utilize drug rewards to capture the drug-specific neural processes, less is known about reward and risk encoding in the context of actual drug use. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how reward and risk processing differ between smokers and non-smokers, using both monetary and nicotine rewards in a structured gambling task and an MRI-compatible vaping device. Preliminary fMRI results with monetary rewards showed significant striatal activation correlated with reward prediction errors and detected risk prediction error-related activity in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Notably, smokers exhibited altered neural responses in these regions, indicating their distorted risk and reward processing compared to non-smokers. This study will shed light on our understanding of the distinct neural processing of primary drug rewards, such as nicotine, within the framework of risk and reward evaluation, providing valuable insights into the neurocognitive aspects of addiction.
Keywords: Reward Risk Nicotine Use Disorder fMRI