Risky decision-making in abstinent heroin addicts: An erp study

Bin Hu, Qinglin Zhao, Shuangshuang Zhou, Hong Peng, Quanying Liu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Heroin addiction is usually associated with decision-making deficits that they are more likely to accept risk. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying risky decision-making in heroin addicts therefore is important not only for interpreting the behavioral or functional impairments for heroin addicts, but also for assessing the treatment outcome in abstinent heroin addicts (AHA). The aim of this study is to investigate the risky decision making in AHA, compared with healthy controls (HC), in terms of their electrophysiological distortions during the performance of gambling tasks. In our study, the gambling task was conducted, involving the high-risk and low-risk choices and then a corresponding positive or negative feedback. During the tasks, 64-channel electroencephalographic (EEG) signals were recorded in 24 AHA subjects and 23 matched HC subjects. The behavioral results showed that AHA preferred to select the high-risk choice, whereas HC did not have this preference. Moreover, the differences of the event related potential (ERP) generated by AHA and HC were examined, particularly the changes in P300 which related to the cognitive and attentional status. Our ERP results showed a significant suppression of P300 intensity in AHA induced by the negative feedback, but not for the positive feedback. This finding implied that the cognitive process during decision-making in AHA might be impaired, with hyposensitivity to punishment.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2017 9th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Technology, ICBBT 2017
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages33-38
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450348799
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event9th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Technology, ICBBT 2017 - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 14 May 201716 May 2017

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
VolumePart F128534

Conference

Conference9th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Technology, ICBBT 2017
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period14/05/1716/05/17

Keywords

  • Addiction
  • Decision making
  • Event-related potentials
  • Gamble task
  • Heroin

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