Abstract #0519

Disrupted Network Interactions in Chronic Cocaine Dependents as Revealed by Modular Network Analysis of Resting-State Functional MRI

Xia Liang¹,², Hong Gu¹, Betty Jo Salmeron¹, Yuzheng Hu¹, Yong He², Elliot Stein¹, Yihong Yang¹

¹Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

To examine the alterations in network-level interactions following chronic use of cocaine, we combined modular network analysis based on graph theory and resting-state fMRI technique. We observed significantly decreased inter-module connectivity among the default mode, salience and emotional networks in cocaine dependents. Moreover, we found that the intra-module connectivity within the salience module showed significantly negative correlation with difficulty of describing feelings in cocaine dependents. Our results demonstrate that cocaine addiction is associated with disruptions of network-level interactions, which may provide novel insights into the neurobiological mechanisms of cocaine addiction.