Abnormal brain activation to visual stimulation in cocaine abusers

Chronic cocaine abuse has been associated with cerebrovascular pathology. This is likely to reflect its vasoactive effects; cocaine produces vasoconstriction and reduces cerebral blood flow. We propose that cerebrovascular pathology in chronic cocaine abusers would result in abnormal BOLD [blood oxy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Life sciences (1973) 2003-08, Vol.73 (15), p.1953-1961
Main Authors: Lee, Jing-Huei, Telang, Frank W, Springer, Charles S, Volkow, Nora D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Blood Flow Velocity - drug effects
Brain Mapping
Cerebrovascular Circulation - drug effects
Cocaine - adverse effects
Cocaine abuse
Cocaine-Related Disorders - blood
Cocaine-Related Disorders - diagnosis
Cocaine-Related Disorders - physiopathology
Evoked Potentials, Visual
Functional MRI
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Angiography - methods
Male
Middle Aged
Narcotics - adverse effects
Neurovascular pathology
Oxygen - blood
Photic Stimulation
Visual Cortex - blood supply
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual stimulation
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Summary:Chronic cocaine abuse has been associated with cerebrovascular pathology. This is likely to reflect its vasoactive effects; cocaine produces vasoconstriction and reduces cerebral blood flow. We propose that cerebrovascular pathology in chronic cocaine abusers would result in abnormal BOLD [blood oxygenation level dependent] responses to activation stimuli. Here, we used fMRI to compared the BOLD response to photic visual stimulation in neurologically intact active cocaine abusers to that in non-drug-using healthy controls. Cocaine abusers showed a significantly enhanced positive BOLD response to photic stimulation when compared to control subjects. The enhanced activation in the cocaine abusers could result from low resting cerebral blood flow secondary to increased vasoconstriction and/or from low oxidative metabolism during activation. Alternatively, the larger signal intensity in the cocaine abusers could result from inefficient neuronal processing as has been shown to occur in other conditions of cerebral pathology. These findings provide evidence of cerebral dysfunction with chronic cocaine abuse, which could reflect cerebral blood flow or neuronal changes. Further studies are required to determine if the cerebrovascular changes we observed in the cocaine abusers recover with detoxification and to assess their functional consequences.
ISSN:0024-3205
1879-0631
DOI:10.1016/S0024-3205(03)00548-4