Brain functional imaging study of possible effects of substance Preceptor antagonist on alcohol craving

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Neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor, the cognate receptor for substance P (SP), is highly expressed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and has been hypothesized to have a role in positive reward processing in the NAc in humans. Therefore, we conducted a functional MRI (fMRI) study to assess the effects of an NK1 receptor antagonist on human reward processing. Healthy adults participated in series of an fMRI study, taking either a placebo or the NK1 receptor antagonist aprepitant. fMRI showed significant decrease in blood oxygenation-level-dependent signals in the NAc during gain anticipation with the aprepitant treatment compared to the placebo treatment. These results suggest that SP/NK1 receptor system is involved in reword processing and plays a role in accentuating positive valence or alcohol craving in the reward circuit.