Methamphetamine related cues impact impulsive choice by decreasing loss aversion

Abstract

Background: We investigated alterations in impulsive choice and impulsive action among individuals with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) compared to a control group after exposure to cues associated with methamphetamine (METH). Methods: Thirty-four participants with MUD and 31 healthy participants were instructed to experience a METH-related virtual reality (VR) social environment and to perform the go/no-go task as well as the balloon analog risk task (BART) before (the baseline condition) and after (the cue-induced condition) watching a VR video. Results: There were no significant differences between groups for go/no-go task both in the baseline condition and cue-induced condition. The METH group exhibited more adjusted pumps in the cue-induced condition than in the baseline condition. The λ (loss aversion) of the METH group was significantly lower in the cue-induced condition than in the baseline condition. In the correlation analysis of behavioral data and the exponential-weight mean-variance (EWMV) parameters, λ was the only parameter related to adjusted pumps both in the baseline condition and the cue-induced condition, reflected by a strong negative correlation. Conclusions: These findings suggest that METH related cues may impact impulsive choice, but not impulsive action, by decreasing loss aversion.