Influence of menstrual cycle phase on neural and craving responses to appetitive smoking cues in naturally cycling females.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used extensively in an attempt to understand brain vulnerabilities that mediate maladaptive responses to drug cues. Using perfusion fMRI, we have consistently shown reward-related activation (medial orbitofrontal cortex/ventral striatum) to smoking cues (SCs). Because preclinical and clinical studies generally show that progesterone may reduce reward and craving, we hypothesized that females in the follicular phase of the cycle (FPs; when progesterone levels are low) would have greater reward-related neural responses to SCs compared with females in the luteal phase (LPs).

Methods

Sated cigarette-dependent premenopausal naturally cycling females underwent pseudo-continuous arterial spin-labeled perfusion fMRI

SUBMITTER: Franklin TR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4432396 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature