Journal article

Brain activation associated with attentional bias in smokers is modulated by a dopamine antagonist

M Luijten, DJ Veltman, R Hester, M Smits, L Pepplinkhuizen, IHA Franken

Neuropsychopharmacology | Published : 2012

Abstract

Attentional bias in substance-dependent individuals is the tendency to automatically direct the attention to substance-related cues in the environment. Attentional bias is known to be associated with clinical measures such as relapse or successful quitting in smokers. It has been suggested that attentional bias emerges as a consequence of dopaminergic activity evoked by substance-related cues. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study employed a dopaminergic challenge in order to test whether brain activation associated with attentional bias in smokers could be modulated by a dopamine antagonist. A total of 25 smokers were compared with 24 controls. Participants were scanned tw..

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University of Melbourne Researchers