ArticleThe American journal of psychiatry2020
Evidence for Dopamine Abnormalities in the Substantia Nigra in Cocaine Addiction Revealed by Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI.
Article in The American journal of psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuromelanin-Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Neurodegeneration and Homelessness: A Bidirectional Relationship Shaping Health and Vulnerability.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2026Review
- The potential of neuromelanin-sensitive MRI in psychiatric disorders.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI Contrast and Chronic Depression in Young Women.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Dopamine function in adolescent social anxiety: Insights from neuromelanin-sensitive MRI.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- The Role of Purine Metabolism and Uric Acid in Postnatal Neurologic Development.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The role of the prefrontal cortex in cocaine-induced noradrenaline release in the nucleus accumbens: a computational study.Biological cybernetics · 2025Article
- Cognitive Dysfunction in the Addictions (CDiA): protocol for a neuron-to-neighbourhood collaborative research program.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Longitudinal neuromelanin changes in prodromal and early Parkinson's disease in humans and rat model.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI for mechanistic research and biomarker development in psychiatry.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Association of Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI Signal With Lifetime Substance Use in Young Women.The American journal of psychiatry · 2024Article
- Wanting-liking dissociation and altered dopaminergic functioning: Similarities between internet gaming disorder and tobacco use disorder.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2024Article
- Generalizability and Out-of-Sample Predictive Ability of Associations Between Neuromelanin-Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Psychosis in Antipsychotic-Free Individuals.JAMA psychiatry · 2024Article
- Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI as a promising biomarker of catecholamine function.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2024Review
- Extracellular free water elevations are associated with brain volume and maternal cytokine response in a longitudinal nonhuman primate maternal immune activation model.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
- Striatal hypoactivation during monetary loss anticipation in individuals with substance use disorders in a heterogenous urban American Indian sample.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
- Development, wiring and function of dopamine neuron subtypes.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2023Review
- Striatal dopamine synthesis capacity and neuromelanin in the substantia nigra: A multimodal imaging study in schizophrenia and healthy controls.Neuroscience applied · 2023Article
- Substance Abuse in Emerging Adults: The Role of Neuromelanin and Ventral Striatal Response to Social and Monetary Rewards.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Magnetic resonance imaging of the dopamine system in schizophrenia - A scoping review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
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9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveRecent evidence supports the use of neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) as a novel tool to investigate dopamine function in the human brain. The authors investigated the NM-MRI signal in individuals with cocaine use disorder, compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects, based on previous imaging studies showing that this disorder is associated with blunted presynaptic striatal dopamine.
methodsNM-MRI and T
resultsCompared with control subjects, cocaine users showed significantly increased NM-MRI signal in ventrolateral regions of the substantia nigra (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve=0.83). Exploratory analyses did not find a significant correlation of NM-MRI signal to activation of the ventral striatum during anticipation of monetary reward.
conclusionsGiven that previous imaging studies show decreased dopamine signaling in the striatum, the finding of increased NM-MRI signal in the substantia nigra provides additional insight into the pathophysiology of cocaine use disorder. One interpretation is that cocaine use disorder is associated with a redistribution of dopamine between cytosolic and vesicular pools, leading to increased accumulation of neuromelanin. The study findings thus suggest that NM-MRI can serve as a practical imaging tool for interrogating the dopamine system in addiction.
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