EEG Reveals Neural Oscillatory Abnormalities in Heroin Addicts' Reward Circuitry During Reward Processing

Heroin addiction represents a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by profound alterations in the brain's reward circuitry, particularly within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventral tegmental area (VTA), and nucleus accumbens (NAc). Despite mounting evidence that addiction involves dysregulated neural oscillations, frequency domain analysis of reward processing in deeper brain structures remains critically understudied. We collected 64-channel EEG data from heroin addicts and healthy controls during a monetary incentive delay task with three conditions: positive (potential monetary gain), neutral (no gain or loss), and negative (potential monetary loss). Using advanced source localization techniques with fine realistic head models, we reconstructed brain source signals from key reward circuitry regions (mPFC, VTA, and NAc), analyzing neural responses across three temporal stages: reward anticipation, reward expectation, and reward outcome through event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) analysis and time-frequency analysis. Heroin addicts exhibited significantly altered neural oscillatory patterns compared to healthy controls across delta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands within the reward circuitry, with frequency-specific abnormalities observed in both cortical and subcortical reward-related regions during different stages of reward processing. This study provides the first comprehensive characterization of frequency-specific neural dysfunction spanning the entire reward circuitry in heroin addiction, offering novel insights into the oscillatory mechanisms underlying reward processing abnormalities and informing the development of frequency-targeted therapeutic interventions.