The acute and sub-acute effects of ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) on processing of facial expressions: preliminary findings

Hoshi, Rosa; Bisla, Jatinder; Curran, H. Valerie

doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2004.06.006

Cited by 35 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This may be consistent with Matyassy et al (2006) who reported that "eyes task" performance of patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV alcohol dependence did not differ from that of matched healthy control participants. The lack of any evidence of subacute effects of cocaine on the accuracy of judging fear is consistent with Hoshi et al (2004) who reported that cocaine use by the majority of their participants at baseline had no effect on fear recognition accuracy 4 days later. However, they also reported that their ecstasy users used cocaine more frequently and for a longer duration than controls.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…In contrast, it has been suggested that serotonin plays a critical role in the processing of fearful expressions on the basis of evidence that fear recognition is enhanced after the acute administration of citalopram (Harmer et al 2003a), and tryptophan supplementation (Attenburrow et al 2003), and impaired following tryptophan depletion (Harmer et al 2003b). In the only published investigation of the subacute effects of an illicit stimulant drug on EFE recognition performance, Hoshi et al (2004) reported that ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine) users were relatively impaired at recognizing fear 4 days after taking the drug and that the extent of this deficit was negatively correlated with past consumption of ecstasy. They interpreted these findings as further evidence that serotonin plays a role in modulating the recognition of fearful facial expressions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users

et al. 2007

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There were no group differences in psychopathology or "eyes task" performance, but the RC group, who otherwise had similar illicit substance use histories to the OC group, exhibited impaired fear recognition accuracy compared to the OC and CN groups. The RC group also correctly identified anger, fear, happiness, and surprise, more slowly than CN, but not OC participants. The OC group was slower than CN when correctly identifying disgust. The selective deficit in fear recognition accuracy manifested by the RC group cannot be explained by the subacute effects of cocaine, or ecstasy, because recent and less recent users of these drugs within this group were similarly impaired. Possible parallels between RC users and psychopaths with respect to impaired fear recognition, amygdala dysfunction, and etiology are discussed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users

et al. 2007

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“…This negative result contrasts with evidence of impaired fear recognition in recreational cocaine users (average use ¼ once per month) (Kemmis et al, 2007) and of similar difficulties as documented using additional emotional recognition tasks in current and abstinent abusers of other drugs (eg, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, opiates, alcohol) (Hoshi et al, 2004); (Kornreich et al, 2003;Townshend and Duka, 2003). A possible explanation for this difference may pertain to the inclusion criteria.…”

Section: No Effects Of Cocaine Abuse On Facial and Emotional Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 69%

The Neuropsychology of Cocaine Addiction: Recent Cocaine Use Masks Impairment

Woicik

Moeller

Alia‐Klein

et al. 2008

Neuropsychopharmacol

174

134

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Individuals with current cocaine use disorders (CUD) form a heterogeneous group, making sensitive neuropsychological (NP) comparisons with healthy individuals difficult. The current study examined the effects on NP functioning of four factors that commonly vary among CUD: urine status for cocaine (positive vs negative on study day), cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and dysphoria. Sixty-four cocaine abusers were matched to healthy comparison subjects on gender and race; the groups also did not differ in measures of general intellectual functioning. All subjects were administered an extensive NP battery measuring attention, executive function, memory, facial and emotion recognition, and motor function. Compared with healthy control subjects, CUD exhibited performance deficits on tasks of attention, executive function, and verbal memory (within one standard deviation of controls). Although CUD with positive urine status, who had higher frequency and more recent cocaine use, reported greater symptoms of dysphoria, these cognitive deficits were most pronounced in the CUD with negative urine status. Cigarette smoking, frequency of alcohol consumption, and dysphoria did not alter these results. The current findings replicate a previously reported statistically significant, but relatively mild NP impairment in CUD as compared with matched healthy control individuals and further suggest that frequent/recent cocaine may mask underlying cognitive (but not mood) disturbances. These results call for development of pharmacological agents targeted to enhance cognition, without negatively impacting mood in individuals addicted to cocaine.

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“…However, after 4 days of drug withdrawal, the opposite effect was observed, i.e., a decrease in the recognition of fearful faces (28).…”

Section: Behavioral Datamentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Three studies (25)(26)(27) evaluated the effects of sub-chronic or chronic treatment with 5-HT probes; one of them also included a noradrenergic drug (25). Finally, one study (28) determined both the immediate and four-day later effect of a single dose of ecstasy.…”

Section: Review Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serotonergic modulation of face-emotion recognition

Del-Ben

Ferreira

Alves-Neto

et al. 2008

Braz J Med Biol Res

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Facial expressions of basic emotions have been widely used to investigate the neural substrates of emotion processing, but little is known about the exact meaning of subjective changes provoked by perceiving facial expressions. Our assumption was that fearful faces would be related to the processing of potential threats, whereas angry faces would be related to the processing of proximal threats. Experimental studies have suggested that serotonin modulates the brain processes underlying defensive responses to environmental threats, facilitating risk assessment behavior elicited by potential threats and inhibiting fight or flight responses to proximal threats. In order to test these predictions about the relationship between fearful and angry faces and defensive behaviors, we carried out a review of the literature about the effects of pharmacological probes that affect 5-HTmediated neurotransmission on the perception of emotional faces. The hypothesis that angry faces would be processed as a proximal threat and that, as a consequence, their recognition would be impaired by an increase in 5-HT function was not supported by the results reviewed. In contrast, most of the studies that evaluated the behavioral effects of serotonin challenges showed that increased 5-HT neurotransmission facilitates the recognition of fearful faces, whereas its decrease impairs the same performance. These results agree with the hypothesis that fearful faces are processed as potential threats and that 5-HT enhances this brain processing.

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The acute and sub-acute effects of ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) on processing of facial expressions: preliminary findings

Cited by 35 publications

References 37 publications

Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users

Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users

The Neuropsychology of Cocaine Addiction: Recent Cocaine Use Masks Impairment

Serotonergic modulation of face-emotion recognition

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