A neuroimaging feature can be used to predict the intensity of drug and food cravings

BEIJING, Dec.
20 (ZXIN) -- A new paper published in Nature Neuroscience, a professional academic journal owned by Springer Nature, reports a neuroimaging feature that can be used to predict the intensity
of drug and food cravings.

The paper describes the desire to use drugs or eat as a driver of substance abuse or overeating
.
Cravings triggered by drugs or food-related stimuli may be used to help predict drug use or relapse, unhealthy eating, and weight gain
.
However, the neural basis of human cravings is not fully
understood.

The collaboration between co-corresponding author Leonie Koban, France's National Center for Scientific Research, Tor Wager of Dartmouth College and Hedy Kober of Yale University, identified a neuromarker, or biomarker, that could predict drug and food craving intensity
between nicotine, alcohol and cocaine users and matched controls 。 In 3 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, 99 participants viewed pictures of drugs and very tasty foods (e.
g.
, a stack of Western-style pancakes) and were prompted to consider the immediate positive consequences of using the things in the diagrams, or the negative consequences
of repeated use.
They also rated
how much they craved the items.
The authors then applied machine learning methods to the neuroimaging data to identify neurobiological craving traits (NCS), which contain several brain regions whose activity can be used to predict higher or lower craving levels
.

NCS is highly
accurate at predicting both drug and food cravings.
Moreover, from the recorded NCS responses of participants to drug and food cues, the authors succeeded in identifying drug users and non-users
.
They also found that NCS responses to food images predicted the intensity of drug craving, and vice versa, perhaps suggesting that food and drug cravings share neural pathways
.

The authors conclude that identifying NCS provides a potential target for developing therapeutic desired clinical interventions, as well as improving existing therapies
.
(End)