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Decision-making, somatic markers and emotion processing in opiate users

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Abstract

Rationale

Opiate use is associated with deficits in decision-making. A possible explanation for these deficits is provided by the somatic marker hypothesis, which suggests that substance users may experience abnormal emotional responses during decision-making involving reward and punishment. This in turn may interfere with the brief physiological arousal, i.e. somatic markers that normally occur in anticipation of risky decisions. To date, the applicability of the somatic marker hypothesis to explain decision-making deficits has not been investigated in opiate users.

Objectives

This study assessed whether decision-making deficits in opiate users were related to abnormal emotional responses and reduced somatic markers.

Methods

Opiate users enrolled in an opiate substitute treatment program (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 32) completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) while their skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. Participants’ emotional responses to emotion-eliciting videos were also recorded using SCRs and subjective ratings.

Results

Opiate users displayed poorer decision-making on the IGT than did controls. However, there were no differences between the groups in SCRs; both groups displayed stronger SCRs following punishment than following reward, and both groups displayed stronger anticipatory SCRs prior to disadvantageous decisions than advantageous decisions. There were no group differences in objective or subjective measures of emotional responses to the videos.

Conclusions

The results suggest that deficits in emotional responsiveness are not apparent in opiate users who are receiving pharmacological treatment. Thus, the somatic marker hypothesis does not provide a good explanation for the decision-making deficits in this group.

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Notes

  1. We replicated this analysis comparing decision-making performance in opiate users who were using heroin concurrently with opiate substitutes (current users, n = 19) with opiate users not concurrently taking heroin (past users, n = 9). There was no significant group difference in decision-making performance: t (26) = 0.30, p = 0.976, d = 0.01.

  2. We replicated the SCR analyses comparing opiate users who were using heroin concurrently with opiate substitutes (current users, n = 19) with opiate users not concurrently taking heroin (past users, n = 9). There were no group differences in SCR (all p ≥ 0.587, all F ≤ 0.30) and Cohen’s d effect sizes for the group differences were small (0.12 ≤ d ≤ 0.22).

  3. It is possible that participants may not produce anticipatory somatic markers in the early stages of the IGT due to a lack of repeated exposure to the rewards and punishments associated with each deck. We therefore re-ran the analyses of anticipatory SCR while excluding the first 20 trials of the IGT. The results replicated of the original analyses. Specifically, we found that there was no main effect of group and no interaction between group and decision (all F ≤ 1.76, all p ≥ 0.190). There was a main effect of decision, with the anticipatory SCR prior to disadvantageous decisions (M = 0.08, SD = 0.09) significantly higher than the SCR prior to advantageous decisions (M = 0.07, SD = 0.07; F(1, 60) = 8.09, p = 0.006).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the help of Lauren McKeogh in data extraction.

Funding

This study was supported by the Faculty Research Student Support Scheme grant at the Australian Catholic University and an Australian Catholic University Research Fund Program grant. KB was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognition and Emotion Research Centre, School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia

    Kathryn Biernacki, Gill Terrett, Skye N. McLennan, Izelle Labuschagne, Phoebe Morton & Peter G. Rendell

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  1. Kathryn Biernacki
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  2. Gill Terrett
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  3. Skye N. McLennan
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Correspondence to Kathryn Biernacki.

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Informed consent was obtained from participants and they were tested individually in one session. This study was approved by the Australian Catholic University ethics committee and conformed to the ethical standards set out in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Biernacki, K., Terrett, G., McLennan, S.N. et al. Decision-making, somatic markers and emotion processing in opiate users. Psychopharmacology 235, 223–232 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4760-0

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