Neural and behavioral correlates of attentional bias to cannabis cues among adults with cannabis use disorders.

Abstract

The current pilot study probed the time course of attentional bias to cannabis-related cues among individuals with cannabis use disorders (CUDs) compared with healthy controls. Forty participants (individuals with CUDs, n = 20, Mage = 26.2 and healthy controls, n = 20, Mage = 28) completed a modified visual attention task in which they made decisions about the orientation of a target line while ignoring temporally flanking lines and cannabis-related, positive-, negative-, and neutral-images as behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. To examine the time course of attentional bias, we analyzed ERP responses separately to targets and distractors from 125 ms to 620 ms after stimulus onset. Results showed that, compared with healthy controls, cannabis users demonstrated greater selective attention failure (i.e., had more difficulties ignoring distractor stimuli) when making decisions in the presence of cannabis cues. Likewise, cannabis smokers demonstrated relatively larger differences in accuracy (i.e., committed more errors in target decisions) between trials involving cannabis cues versus neutral cues. ERP data revealed that the N1 component (125–200 ms after stimulus onset) to flankers preceding cannabis cues peaked relatively earlier and was of larger amplitude in cannabis users, suggesting an early perceptual bias toward the cannabis cues. Findings suggest that individuals with CUDs have poorer selective attention, impaired inhibitory control, and early attentional biases toward cannabis uses compared with healthy nonusers. The augmented early perceptual response suggests an involuntary orienting of attention toward cannabis cues. Implications for future research and intervention development for individuals with CUD are discussed.

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry and Inhibitory Control among Individuals with Cannabis Use Disorders

“…Data for this analysis came from a recently completed lab-based experimental study that utilized EEG and ERP (event-related potential) to examine the time course of attentional bias and cue reactivity among individuals with CUD compared to healthy controls. See Ruglass et al [38] for details. The parent study examined ERPs as indices of attentional bias to cannabis cues in cannabis users.…”

“…Forty participants were recruited from printed flyers, online advertisements, and word of mouth (see Table 1 for demographic characteristics). For full details on inclusion and exclusion criteria, see Ruglass et al [38]. The current study included cannabis smokers ( n = 20, M age = 26.2, SD = 8.53) who were physically healthy English-speaking adults and were diagnosed with current CUD (abuse or dependence).…”

“…After completing a phone screen, participants completed a baseline interview and an experimental session on two separate days. Participants first completed a urine toxicology screen and were administered a series of diagnostic and clinical measures during both sessions (see Ruglass et al [38] for details). During the experimental session, while inside an electrically and acoustically shielded Industrial Acoustics Company (New York, USA) chamber, each participant completed 24 blocks of experimental trials (and one or more blocks of practice trials) in a modified version of the visual flanker task [40] called the temporal flanker paradigm (see Figure 1) while their electroencephalographic (EEG) responses were recorded.…”

“…All eight images from one of the four cue sets (neutral, positive, negative, cannabis) appeared randomly an equal number of times during each block of filtering trials, creating four distinct filtering tasks. See Ruglass et al [38] for further details.…”

Increased Resting State Triple Network Functional Connectivity in Undergraduate Problematic Cannabis Users: A Preliminary EEG Coherence Study

“…A recent meta-analysis [3] on 35 task-related functional imaging studies also showed that cannabis use is associated with a decreased activity in brain areas involved in cognitive control process (e.g., the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)) and increased activity in brain structures involved in reward processing (e.g., the striatum). Lastly, electroencephalographic (EEG) studies showed that cannabis use is related to several neurophysiological abnormalities, such as increased cortical activation and connectivity, not only during drug cue exposure [10][11][12] but also during resting state (RS) condition [13][14][15].…”