Nicotine reduces discrimination between threat and safety in the hippocampus, nucleus accumbens and amygdala.
Transl Psychiatry
; 14(1): 319, 2024 Aug 03.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39097609
ABSTRACT
Nicotine intake is linked to the maintenance and development of anxiety disorders and impairs adaptive discrimination of threat and safety in rodents and humans. Yet, it is unclear if nicotine exerts a causal pharmacological effect on the affective and neural mechanisms that underlie aversive learning. We conducted a pre-registered, pseudo-randomly and double-blinded pharmacological fMRI study to investigate the effect of acute nicotine on Fear Acquisition and Extinction in non-smokers (n = 88). Our results show that nicotine administration led to decreased discrimination between threat and safety in subjective fear. Nicotine furthermore decreased differential (threat vs. safety) activation in the hippocampus, which was functionally coupled with Nucleus Accumbens and amygdala, compared to placebo controls. Additionally, nicotine led to enhanced physiological arousal to learned threats and overactivation of the ventral tegmental area. This study provides mechanistic evidence that single doses of nicotine impair neural substrates of adaptive aversive learning in line with the risk for the development of pathological anxiety.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Imagen por Resonancia Magnética
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Miedo
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Hipocampo
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Amígdala del Cerebelo
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Nicotina
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Núcleo Accumbens
Límite:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Transl Psychiatry
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Alemania
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos