Understanding Altered Dynamics in Cocaine Use Disorder Through State Transitions Mediated by Artificial Perturbations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Brain Imaging
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a global health issue with significant neurological impact.
• Understanding the dynamic brain state transitions in CUD is crucial but remains limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate phase dynamics and state transitions in CUD using fMRI.
• Identify brain regions involved in transitioning between CUD and healthy states.
• Develop computational models to understand CUD pathogenesis and therapeutic interventions.

Main Methods:

• Collected resting-state fMRI data from 43 CUD patients and 45 healthy controls (HCT).
• Analyzed phase-coherence states and their occurrence probabilities.
• Utilized computational modeling to simulate state transitions and identify critical brain regions.

Main Results:

• CUD was linked to a decreased probability of default mode network (DMN)-dominant brain states.
• Perturbations in nucleus accumbens, thalamus, and DMN/limbic/frontoparietal regions induced HCT to CUD transitions.
• Stimulating hippocampus and visual/attention/DMN regions facilitated CUD to HCT recovery.

Conclusions:

• Altered DMN phase dynamics characterize CUD.
• Identified key brain regions for mediating state transitions in CUD.
• Findings inform CUD pathogenesis understanding and potential neuromodulation therapies.