Positive face BOLD response and task-dependent ventral striatal functional connectivity during Go/No-go task among abstinent cannabis-using adolescents and young adults

TL;DR

This study examines brain activity differences in cannabis users during a task involving emotional faces, finding altered responses in reward-related brain regions.

Contribution

The study explores positive face processing in cannabis users during inhibitory control, revealing novel insights into reward-related brain function.

Findings

Cannabis users showed increased left middle cingulum and decreased left supplemental motor area BOLD response during positive Go conditions.

Decreased BOLD response in the left superior frontal region was observed during positive No-go conditions in cannabis users.

Ventral striatum activity was increased during Go and decreased during No-go conditions for cannabis users, with no connectivity differences.

Abstract

Regular cannabis use is associated with attenuated neural reward signaling, primarily measured through monetary or drug-cue tasks. Yet, minimal research has studied functional positive face processing in inhibitory control contexts, particularly amongst cannabis-using adolescent and young adults. The present study seeks to investigate functional response differences in whole-brain and ventral striatal activation, and ventral striatal functional context-dependent connectivity during positive (i.e., happy) face conditions during an emotional Go/No-go task in abstinent regular cannabis-using adolescent and young adults compared to controls.

Participants (age 16–26; cannabis-using=35; control=33) underwent at least two-weeks of monitored abstinence before completing an emotional Go/No-go fMRI task. Whole-brain analyses examined blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) differences for positive (minus neutral) face conditions between groups. Bilateral ventral striatal activity was investigated in region-of-interest and task-dependent functional connectivity analysis.

Cannabis-using participants displayed increased left middle cingulum and decreased left supplemental motor area BOLD response during positive Go conditions. Decreased BOLD response was seen in left superior frontal region during positive No-go for cannabis-using participants. Ventral striatum activity was increased during Go and decreased during No-go conditions for cannabis-using group, with null connectivity findings.

Clusters of aberrant functional response within cannabis-using adolescents and young adults aligns with previous, but sparse, literature on positive face engagement and inhibition. Here, we demonstrate variable ventral striatum activity consistent with reward-eliciting BOLD investigations—representing importance of reward-related affective investigations—yet no connectivity differences in this sample. These findings may represent a risk for or consequence of cannabis use, as differences are still notable after two-weeks of abstinence.

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