Effects of methamphetamine on two measures of reward: Euphoria and neural activation to reward cues

作者：Hanna Molla, Joseph DeBrosse, Sarah Keedy, Royce Lee, Harriet de Wit · 发表于：Neuropsychopharmacology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41386-025-02110-6 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior、Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies、Memory and Neural Mechanisms

Stimulants enhance dopamine function, affecting diverse aspects of reward function from neural processing of reward cues to feelings of well-being in humans. However, little is known about the relationships among different measures of reward function. Understanding relationships among different indices of reward processing could provide insight into the processes that control motivated behavior. The present study examined the effects of a single dose of methamphetamine on two measures of reward in healthy adults: feelings of well-being and neural activation with reward-related stimuli. In a randomized, within-subject, double-blind study, 88 healthy men and women received a single 20 mg oral dose of methamphetamine (MA) and placebo, across two sessions. Regional activations to reward-related cues were assessed using fMRI during the Monetary Incentive Delay task, and positive subjective effects of MA were assessed using standardized questionnaires. As expected, MA increased euphoria and feelings of well-being. MA had minimal effects on neural activation during either anticipation or receipt of reward, but it significantly increased ventral striatal activation during anticipation of monetary loss, suggesting heightened salience of loss-related cues. As reported previously, caudate activation during reward anticipation during the non-drug (placebo) session was correlated with euphoria induced by MA (on the MA session). However, this correlation between cue-induced neural activati...