Podcast: How Opioids Break the Brain's Zoom Lens

​Drugs are potent reinforcers biasing value-based decisions at the expense of non-drug rewards through poorly understood neurocomputational processes. Cross-species work suggests valuation is context-dependent, which may account for the over-selection of drug-related actions. In line with the theory of addiction as a form of maladaptive referent-dependent evaluation, we tested whether recent opioid exposure impacts range adaptation in OUD. Using a validated task probing contextual valuation, we extended previous work on healthy subjects to individuals who reported recent use (<90 days) or had abstained from opioid use (≥ 90 days) and comparison controls. Using computational modeling, we assessed whether participants made their decisions using a context-dependent valuation or assuming an objective value encoding. While most controls and ≥90-day abstinent OUD seemed to use contextual valuation, recent users were more prone to encode objective values. Interestingly, the degree of reliance on contextual valuation correlated with abstinence duration and subjective craving/withdrawal. Take-away: Reduced context adaptation to available rewards could explain difficulty deciding about smaller (typically non-drug) rewards in the aftermath of drug exposure.

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MAËLLE GUEGUEN,
Associate Investigator