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Cocaine use and the mid-latency auditory evoked responses
N Boutros1, D Campbell, I Petrakis
1Department of Psychiatry (116A), Yale University School of Medicine and VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Avenue, 06516, West Haven, CT, USA. nash@boutros@yale.edu
Psychiatry Research
|November 7, 2000
Summary
Chronic cocaine use impairs auditory processing, affecting smaller P50 brain responses with long intervals and reducing N100 attenuation in cocaine-dependent individuals.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Addiction Research
Background:
- Chronic cocaine use is associated with significant neurobiological alterations.
- Auditory evoked responses provide insights into neural processing.
- Mid-latency auditory evoked responses (MLAERs) reflect early stages of auditory information processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of chronic cocaine dependence on MLAERs.
- To compare auditory processing in cocaine-dependent individuals and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Recorded MLAERs in 15 cocaine-dependent subjects and 13 age-matched healthy controls.
- Utilized two paradigms: a trains paradigm with varying inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) and a paired-click paradigm.
- Analyzed specific components like P50 and N100.
Main Results:
- Cocaine-dependent subjects showed smaller P50 components with long ISIs in the trains paradigm.
- A significant deficit in attenuating the N100 component was observed in cocaine-dependent subjects using the paired-click paradigm.
Conclusions:
- Chronic cocaine use alters mid-latency auditory evoked responses.
- These findings suggest disruptions in early auditory processing and sensory gating mechanisms in cocaine dependence.