Examination of Acute Stress on a Neurophysiological Indicator of Incentive Salience in Cannabis Users

Abstract

Cannabis is one of the most widely used illicit substances in the United States, in part due to recently increased accessibility and inaccurate perceptions regarding negative health effects associated with use. Rates of Cannabis Use Disorder are expected to increase, lending to more research determining markers of disordered use, which may be targeted for intervention. Broadly, chronic substance use is associated with neurophysiological alterations in reward processing, such that the relative motivational value of stimuli indicative of substance use is greater than benign or even naturally-rewarding cues. Further, repeated substance use is known to alter how the body responds to stress, impacting attentional engagement towards substance relevant and irrelevant cues, as well as substance-related craving. Despite a breadth of literature spanning this topic, there remains a dearth of research examining how acute stress impacts neurophysiological reward processing in people with Cannabis Use Disorder. The current study sought to address this gap by measuring a neurophysiological marker of early attentional engagement, the P300, to cannabis, naturally-rewarding, and neutral pictures after an acute lab-induced stressor. Results were partially consistent with models of addiction, whereby acute stress diminished P300 amplitude to neutral and naturally-rewarding images but did not affect P300 amplitude to cannabis images. These novel findings offer insight into how those with Cannabis Use Disorder react to various cues during acute stress induction and provide future avenues of potential intervention.