Nicotine deprivation elevates neural representation of smoking-related cues in object-sensitive visual cortex: a proof of concept study.
OBJECTIVE
In the current study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate whether tobacco addiction biases basic visual processing in favour of smoking-related images. We hypothesize that the neural representation of smoking-related stimuli in the lateral occipital complex (LOC) is elevated after a period of nicotine deprivation compared to a satiated state, but that this is not the case for object categories unrelated to smoking.


METHODS
Current smokers (≥10 cigarettes a day) underwent two fMRI scanning sessions: one after 10 h of nicotine abstinence and the other one after smoking ad libitum. Regional blood oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response was measured while participants were presented with 24 blocks of 8 colour-matched pictures of cigarettes, pencils or chairs. The functional data of 10 participants were analysed through a pattern classification approach.


RESULTS
In bilateral LOC clusters, the classifier was able to discriminate between patterns of activity elicited by visually similar smoking-related (cigarettes) and neutral objects (pencils) above empirically estimated chance levels only during deprivation (mean = 61.0%, chance (permutations) = 50.0%, p = .01) but not during satiation (mean = 53.5%, chance (permutations) = 49.9%, ns.). For all other stimulus contrasts, there was no difference in discriminability between the deprived and satiated conditions.


CONCLUSION
The discriminability between smoking and non-smoking visual objects was elevated in object-selective brain region LOC after a period of nicotine abstinence. This indicates that attention bias likely affects basic visual object processing.
['Havermans|Anne|A|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9348-941X', 'van Schayck|Onno C P|OCP|', 'Vuurman|Eric F P M|EFPM|', 'Riedel|Wim J|WJ|', 'van den Hurk|Job|J|']
D000328:Adult D001288:Attention D001931:Brain Mapping D003463:Cues D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D009538:Nicotine D000075082:Proof of Concept Study D012907:Smoking D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome D014793:Visual Cortex D055815:Young Adult
Nicotine deprivation Lateral occipital complex Pattern classification Attention bias Smoking cues