Glutamatergic contributions to nicotine-induced cognitive enhancement

社会互动的神经科学的重要性迅速增长。在社会互动中情绪加工的神经基质中，杏仁核是关键。众所周知，杏仁核通过监测积极和消极情绪价值的环境信号来协调厌恶和食欲强化学习。这种信号最典型的是人脸，恐惧和快乐的脸都是强化物，因为它们使观察者能够迅速了解应该接近或避免哪些行为或物体。越来越多的证据表明，强化学习在吸毒成瘾中是不正常的。fMRI项目的核心假设是，如果(1)杏仁核功能对强化学习至关重要，如果(2)尼古丁成瘾与失调的强化学习有关，那么尼古丁成瘾的受试者应该表现为杏仁核功能障碍。具体来说，我们假设尼古丁依赖受试者的杏仁核可能存在功能、体积和拓扑异常，这可能代表尼古丁成瘾倾向或尼古丁诱导的神经适应。提议的fMRI项目专门解决尼古丁依赖对杏仁核依赖的情感处理在社会刺激的影响。鉴于观察到女性吸烟者的尼古丁依赖率高于男性吸烟者，我们假设女性杏仁核的功能、体积和拓扑结构异常可能比男性更明显。

The neuroscience of social interaction rapidly grows in importance. Key among the neural substrates of emotion processing in social interaction is the amygdala. The amygdala is known to orchestrate aversive and appetitive reinforcement learning through the monitoring of environmental signals of positive and negative emotional value. The most prototypical such signal is the human face, and both fearful and happy faces act as reinforcers in that they enable the observer to rapidly learn which behaviors or objects to approach or avoid. Accumulating evidence suggests that reinforcement learning is dysfunctional in drug addiction. Central to the proposed fMRI project is the assumption that if (1) amygdala function is critical for reinforcement learning, and if (2) nicotine addiction is associated with dysregulated reinforcement learning, then nicotineaddicted subjects should present with amygdala dysfunction. Specifically, we hypothesize that functional, volumetric, and topological abnormalities may exist in the amygdala of nicotine-dependent subjects that may either represent a predisposition to nicotine addiction or a nicotine-induced neuroadaptation. The proposed fMRI project specifically addresses the effects of nicotine dependence on amygdala-dependent emotion pocessing in social stimuli. Given the observation of higher rates of nicotine dependence among female than male smokers, we hypothesize that the amygdala s functional, volumetric, and topological abnormalities may be more pronounced in women than in men.