Contributions of Neuroimaging to Understanding Sex Differences in Cocaine Abuse
Contributions of Neuroimaging to Understanding Sex Differences in Cocaine Abuse
复制标题
DOI：
10.1037/a0025219
复制
发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Howell, Leonard L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Andersen, Monica L.;Sawyer, Eileen K.;Howell, Leonard L.
在药物滥用研究中，一个一贯的观察是，男性和女性在对滥用药物的反应上表现出差异。为了了解可卡因滥用的神经生物学基础和有效的治疗方法，重要的是考虑性别差异的作用。性激素已经在行为学和分子研究中进行了研究，但进一步的证据表明，药物滥用和依赖在两性中都存在，这将扩大我们对滥用药物反应的性别差异的了解。神经成像是一种强大的工具，可以提供对这些差异的生物学基础的洞察，并应对直接检查药物引起的大脑功能变化的挑战。因此，神经成像在最近几年引起了人们的极大兴趣。特别是，正电子发射断层扫描(PET)、单光子发射计算机断层扫描(SPECT)和磁共振成像(MRI)技术已经成为人类和动物模型的有效非侵入性方法。研究揭示了急性注射可卡因和长期使用可卡因后大脑活动模式的性别变化。SPECT和PET研究已经证明了多巴胺转运体的变化，但对多巴胺能系统的其他成分不太清楚。这篇综述强调了神经成像对了解性别差异在药物滥用领域中的作用的贡献，特别是在可卡因方面，并确定了神经成像可以有效解决的相关问题。
A consistent observation in drug abuse research is that males and females show differences in their response to drugs of abuse. In order to understand the neurobiology underlying cocaine abuse and effective treatments, it is important to consider the role of sex differences. Sex hormones have been investigated in both behavioral and molecular studies, but further evidence addressing drug abuse and dependence in both sexes would expand our knowledge of sex differences in response to drugs of abuse. Neuroimaging is a powerful tool that can offer insight into the biological bases of these differences and meet the challenges of directly examining drug-induced changes in brain function. As such, neuroimaging has drawn much interest in recent years. Specifically, positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology have emerged as effective noninvasive approaches for human and animal models. Studies have revealed sex-specific changes in patterns of brain activity in response to acute cocaine injection and after prolonged cocaine use. SPECT and PET studies have demonstrated changes in the dopamine transporter but are less clear on other components of the dopaminergic system. This review highlights contributions of neuroimaging toward understanding the role of sex differences in the drug abuse field, specifically regarding cocaine, and identifies relevant questions that neuroimaging can effectively address.