RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Opioid Receptor PET Reveals the Psychobiologic Correlates of Reward Processing
JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine
JO J Nucl Med
FD Society of Nuclear Medicine
SP 1257
OP 1261
DO 10.2967/jnumed.108.050849
VO 49
IS 8
A1 Mathias Schreckenberger
A1 André Klega
A1 Gerhard Gründer
A1 Hans-Georg Buchholz
A1 Armin Scheurich
A1 Ralf Schirrmacher
A1 Esther Schirrmacher
A1 Christina Müller
A1 Gjermund Henriksen
A1 Peter Bartenstein
YR 2008
UL http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/49/8/1257.abstract
AB Little is known about the neurobiologic correlates of human personality. On the basis of the key role of the central opioidergic system in addiction and substance abuse, we investigated the relationship between certain personality traits that are supposed to be relevant in addiction and the opioid receptor status in healthy subjects. Methods: We investigated 23 healthy male volunteers who were extensively clinically tested to exclude substance abuse. All of the subjects underwent 1 PET scan with the subtype-nonselective opioidergic radioligand 18F-fluoroethyl-diprenorphine under resting conditions without sensory or cognitive stimulation. Subsequently, the subjects were psychologically tested for the personality traits novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence, according to Cloninger's biosocial model of personality. The binding potential (BP) as a parameter of regional cerebral opioid receptor availability was computed by means of the modified Logan plot using the occipital cortex as a reference region. Further imaging data analysis was performed using statistical parametric mapping; after stereotactic normalization, the correlations were calculated between the regional BP and the psychologic scores on a voxel-by-voxel basis. Results: The correlation analysis between personality dimensions and opioid receptor availability showed a significant (P < 0.001) positive correlation between the scores of reward dependence and the BP of the bilateral ventral striatum with nucleus accumbens (z scores, 4.52 and 4.33, respectively). The additionally performed region-of-interest–based correlation analysis yielded correlation coefficients of r = 0.84 and r = 0.81 for the left and right ventral striata, respectively. No further significant correlations were detectable between the other personality dimensions and cerebral opioid receptor binding. Conclusion: In healthy subjects, personality traits, which might be predisposing for addictive behavior, are correlated to the opioidergic neurotransmission in core structures of the human reward system.