Impaired proactive control in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder: Evidence from ERPs

Research suggests that methamphetamine use is associated with impaired cognitive control, which may contribute to impulsive drug use. Cognitive control is dynamically mediated by proactive and reactive control (reflecting various processing stages of cognitive control with different properties), and it is crucial to determine whether methamphetamine use impairs proactive and/or reactive control. To address this issue, we conducted an event-related potential (ERP) study to examine proactive and reactive control in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD).

Abstinent individuals with MUD (n = 25) and healthy controls (HC, n = 27) completed a cued task-switching task while brain electrical activity was recorded. Cue- and target-locked ERP components modulated by task switching were linked to proactive and reactive control, respectively.

No behavioral differences between the groups were found. However, the HC group showed cue-locked switch-positivity (i.e., more positive amplitudes for switch than repeat trials) in both the early and late time windows, although the MUD group only showed late switch-positivity, which was smaller than the HC group. Independent of switch or congruent condition, the MUD group had smaller target-locked positivity than the HC group.

These findings suggest that individuals with MUD exhibit reduced proactive control and mobilize extra reactive control efforts to compensate. Our study contributes to a better understanding of cognitive control impairment in individuals with MUD and has implications for potential interventions.