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Nicotine Usage and Changes in Dopamine Physiology Explored Using fMRI Temporal Dynamics

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Bhakti Patwardhan¹ (bhaktippat@gmail.com), Ian Ballard, Ioannis Pappas, Ann M. Kring, Ingrid R. Olson, Barbara A. Cohn, Piera M. Cirillo, Nickilou Y. Krigbaum, Thomas M. Olino, Mark D'Esposito, Raana A. Mohyee, Ashby B. Cogan, Lauren Weittenhiller, Lauren M. Ellman; ¹UCSF, ²UC Riverside, ³University of Southern California, ⁴UC Berkeley, ⁵Temple University, ⁶Child Health and Development Studies, ⁷Child Health and Development Studies, ⁸Child Health and Development Studies, ⁹Temple University, ¹⁰UC Berkeley, ¹¹Temple University, ¹²UC Berkeley, ¹³UCLA, ¹⁴Temple University

Use of nicotine products has significant health risks, but quitting nicotine is challenging and associated with high rates of remission. Nicotine causes changes in the brain’s dopamine system that may persist after cessation of nicotine. We examined whether a history of nicotine use was associated with alterations in brain physiology linked to dopamine function. Recent results from our lab have shown that the timing of the hemodynamic response – hemodynamic latency – provides information about dopamine physiology in the striatum. In prior work, we found that individuals with cocaine use disorder have increased hemodynamic latencies in the striatum, and the degree of altered hemodynamic latencies was associated with individuals’ daily nicotine use. We hypothesized that this profile of altered physiology would persist in former nicotine users. We calculated hemodynamic latency maps from resting state fMRI data from a sample of middle-aged adults (n = 102, mean age: 58.70) who have taken part in a lifelong longitudinal study with data extending back to when individuals were in utero. Participant’s self-report of current nicotine use and whether they had ever used nicotine was collected. Unlike the earlier study, previous nicotine users exhibited increased hemodynamic latency in the striatum relative to individuals who never used nicotine. This difference could reflect physiological adaptations that differ between current nicotine use, such as internalization of dopamine receptors, and nicotine cessation. Planned analyses will examine the relationship between hemodynamic latency and measures of reward processing— Anticipatory Social Pleasure, Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, Motivation, and Pleasure Scale.

Topic Area: METHODS: Neuroimaging