Integrating facial coding of expressive behavior and functional MRI: A multimodal approach linking momentary affective experience to concurrent changes in brain activity during drug craving

功能性神经影像学已成为研究物质使用和成瘾的广泛使用的方法。这 尤其是在吸烟研究领域，这仍然是对人类健康的最大威胁之一。 世界上的公共卫生。对香烟和其他物质使用的神经成像研究集中在 主要是描述与药物渴望（强烈的使用药物的冲动或欲望）相关的大脑活动。 这反映了一种流行的观点，即渴望在维持成瘾方面起着核心作用， 这是治疗和康复的主要障碍。在过去的几年里，研究人员利用神经成像技术， 学习渴望已经受益于许多显著的方法学进步（例如，日益 复杂的数据分析方法）。然而，用于主观情感体验的方法 变化很小，调查人员必须在很大程度上依赖于相同的自我报告措施， 从神经影像学研究渴望的早期就有了。单独使用，自我报告 测量通常缺乏与瞬间情感体验相关所需的灵敏度和精确度 与渴望相关的大脑活动--考虑到渴望与大脑活动之间的密切关系， 影响。拟议研究的目标是通过开发一种 在神经成像渴望研究中测量主观情感体验的新方法， 面部表情分析的独特优势具体来说，这种方法需要记录参与者的面部表情， 使用磁共振成像（MRI）兼容相机，然后使用面部编码 分析以从视频中导出情感反应的时间过程。通过提供一种方法， 捕捉情感的瞬间变化，面部编码是连接流体情感的理想方法 在渴求的背景下大脑活动的动态变化的反应。拟议的一体化战略 用神经影像学方法评估情感面部表情将在成年人样本中进行测试 每日吸烟者面部表情将被记录为参与者完成功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）协议 已经被证明对激发强烈的香烟渴望非常有效。项目的具体目标 主要有：1）通过分析面部表情的视频记录来证明测量情感的可行性 在功能磁共振成像中显示; 2）为了证明情感的瞬间变化是有意义的 与持续的大脑活动有关，这些活动旨在产生强烈的渴望。如果成功， 拟议的项目将提供一个基础，使用这种新的方法来探索各种问题， 目前很难解决（例如，描述如何影响大脑的动态变化 当吸烟者试图控制他们的渴望时，他们会进行活动。因此，这一综合性和多模式 一种评估方法有可能通过提供对这些联系的新见解而产生重大影响 大脑活动和影响之间的关系，在药物成瘾领域和其他许多领域，更广泛地说。

Functional neuroimaging has become a widely used approach for studying substance use and addiction. This is particularly true in the area of research on cigarette smoking, which remains one of the largest threats to public health in the world. Neuroimaging research on the use of cigarettes and other substances has focused largely on characterizing brain activity associated with drug craving (an intense urge or desire to use drugs). This reflects the prevailing view that craving plays a central role in the maintenance of addiction and serves as a major barrier to treatment and recovery. Over the past several years, researchers using neuroimaging to study craving have benefitted from a number of significant methodological advances (e.g., increasingly sophisticated data analysis methods). However, the methods that are used for subjective affective experience have changed very little, and investigators must largely rely upon the same self-report measures that have been available since the earliest days of neuroimaging craving research. Used in isolation, self-report measures typically lack the sensitivity and precision that are needed to relate momentary affective experience to craving-related brain activity – an important limitation given the intimate relationship between craving and affect. The goal of the proposed research is to address this barrier to progress in the field by developing a novel method for measuring subjective affective experience in neuroimaging craving research that harnesses the unique strengths of facial expression analysis. Specifically, this method entails recording participants' facial expressions using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible camera and then using facial coding analysis to derive a time course of affective reactions from the videos. By providing a way to unobtrusively capture moment-to-moment changes in affect, facial coding is an ideal method for connecting fluid affective reactions to dynamic changes in brain activity in the context of craving. The proposed strategy of integrating the assessment of facial expressions of affect with neuroimaging methods will be tested in a sample of adult daily smokers. Facial expressions will be recorded as participants complete a functional MRI (fMRI) protocol that has proven to be highly effective for provoking strong cigarette cravings. The specific aims of the project are: 1) To demonstrate the feasibility of measuring affect by analyzing video recordings of facial expressions displayed during fMRI; and 2) To demonstrate that moment-to-moment changes in affect are meaningfully associated with ongoing brain activity under conditions designed to produce robust craving. If successful, the proposed project will provide a foundation for using this new method to explore a variety of questions that are currently very difficult to address (e.g., characterizing how affect changes dynamically in relation to brain activity when smokers attempt to regulate their craving). Accordingly, this comprehensive and multimodal approach to assessment has the potential to make a major impact by providing new insights into the links between brain activity and affect in the domain of drug addiction and in many other areas, more broadly.