Smoking-related cue reactivity in a virtual reality setting: association between craving and EEG measures
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ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
Smoking-related cue reactivity in a virtual reality setting: association between craving and EEG measures Stefano Tamburin 1 & Denise Dal Lago 2 & Federica Armani 2 & Marco Turatti 1 & Riccardo Saccà 2 & Simone Campagnari 2 & Cristiano Chiamulera 2 Received: 31 July 2020 / Accepted: 23 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Background Cue-reactivity is the array of responses that smokers exhibit when exposed to conditioned and contextual stimuli previously associated to substance use. The difficulty to experimentally recreate the complexity of smokers’ spatial experience and context requires more ecological models. Virtual reality (VR) creates a state of immersion close to reality allowing controlled assessments of behavioral responses. To date, no studies investigated brain activation associated to smoking cue-reactivity in VR using electroencephalography (EEG). Aims To investigate whether a VR cue-reactivity paradigm (a) may increase smoking craving, (b) is feasible with EEG recording, and (c) induces craving levels associated to EEG desynchronization. Methods Smokers (N = 20) and non-smokers (N = 20) were exposed to neutral and smoking-related VR scenarios, without and with smoking conditioned stimuli, respectively. EEG was recorded from occipital and parietal leads throughout the sessions to assess alpha band desynchronization. Smoking and food craving and presence visual analogue scales (VAS) were assessed during the session. Results To be smoker, but not non-smoker, significantly influenced smoking craving VAS induced by smoking cue VR but not by neutral VR. No significant food craving changes was observed during the VR sessions. The new finding was that EEG alpha band power in posterior leads was significantly increased by the smoking context scenario only in smokers, and that the degree of smoking (i.e., heavy vs. light) was significantly associated to this neurophysiological measure. Conclusions This study demonstrated, for the first time, the feasibility of EEG recording in a VR setting, suggesting that EEG desynchronization may be a neurophysiological marker of smoking cue-reactivity. Keywords Craving . Cue reactivity . Electroencephalography . Smoking . Virtual reality . Visual analogue scale (VAS)
Introduction Cue-reactivity is the vast array of responses that addicted people exhibit when exposed to conditioned and contextual stimuli previously associated to substance use (Chiamulera et al. 2017). Response to drug-related cue reactivity may be
* Stefano Tamburin [email protected] * Cristiano Chiamulera [email protected] 1
Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Piazzale Scuro 10, I-37134 Verona, Italy
2
Department of Diagnostic and Public Health, University of Verona, Piazzale Scuro 10, I-37134 Verona, Italy
physiological (Drummond et al. 2000), psychological (Niaura et al. 1988) and behavioral (Rohsenow et al. 1991). Smoking cue-reactivity has been widely described by anecdotal, ecological, clinical,
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