Cocaine addiction is characterized by alterations in motivational and cognitive processes involved in goal-directed behavior. Recent studies have shown that addictive behaviors can be attributed to alterations in the activity of large functional networks. The aim of this study was to investigate how cocaine addiction affected the left frontoparietal network during goal-directed behavior in a stop-signal task (SST) with reward contingencies by correct task performance. Twenty-eight healthy controls (HC) and 30 abstinent cocaine-dependent patients (ACD) performed SST with monetary reward contingencies while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The results showed that the left frontoparietal network (FPN) displayed an effect of cocaine addiction depending on reward contingencies rather than inhibition accuracy; and, second, we observed a negative correlation between dependence severity and the modulation of the left FPN network by the monetary reward in ACD. These findings highlight the role of the left FPN in the motivational effects of cocaine dependence.
Keywords: cocaine addiction; left frontoparietal network; motivation.
© 2019 Society for the Study of Addiction.