Electroencephalography microstates predict 12-h abstinence-induced craving changes in young smokers

Nicotine abstinence inhibits the function of the mesolimbic dopamine system to enhance craving. EEG microstates may provide spatiotemporal characteristics of global brain neuronal activity. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics and spatial topography of microstates in young smokers after abstinence. At the same time, in order to explore the neurophysiological mechanisms of craving induced by smoking abstinence, baseline microstates indicators were applied to predict craving changes. This study compared the microstates characteristics in 53 young male smokers and 48 matched nonsmokers. A 12-hour smoking abstinence procedure was designed for smokers, and their craving levels were measured using the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU). Furthermore, smokers were divided into high-craving and low-craving groups based on whether their craving changes increased after abstinence. We investigated the differences of microstates indicators before and after abstinence, and explored the relationships between baseline EEG microstates characteristics and smoking craving changes. The machine learning methods were used to predict abstinence-induced craving changes. We observed that the 12-h abstinence procedure significantly decreased the explained variance, duration, occurrence and coverage of microstates class D in 53 smokers. Craving changes induced by abstinence were significantly positively correlated with the explained variance, duration, occurrence and coverage of class D at baseline. The baseline microstates characteristics in smokers predicted abstinence-induced craving changes with an accuracy of 70.18%. These findings suggest that EEG microstates features can serve as key functional biomarkers for abstinence-induced craving in young smokers, providing novel insights for developing personalized abstinence intervention strategies based on EEG characteristics.