Altered EEG Microstates Dynamics During Cue-Induced Methamphetamine Craving in Virtual Reality Environments

Qianqian Lin; Dongxu Li; Cheng Hu; Zhihua Shen; Yongguang Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.891719

Altered EEG Microstates Dynamics During Cue-Induced Methamphetamine Craving in Virtual Reality Environments

Front Psychiatry. 2022 May 4:13:891719. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.891719. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Qianqian Lin¹, Dongxu Li², Cheng Hu³, Zhihua Shen¹, Yongguang Wang^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Affiliated Mental Health Center and Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
² Anhui Psychiatric Medical Center, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
³ Shiliping Compulsory Rehabilitation Center, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Drug Abuse Research, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: Cue-induced craving is widely considered to be the most important risk factor for relapse during abstinence from methamphetamine (Meth). There is limited research regarding electroencephalography (EEG) microstates of Meth-dependent patients under exposure to drug-related cues. Our objective was to investigate whether EEG microstate temporal characteristics could capture neural correlates of cue-induced Meth craving in virtual reality (VR) environments.

Methods: EEG recordings of 35 Meth-dependent patients and 30 healthy controls (HCs) were collected during eyes-open state and cue-induced state, respectively. Group differences and condition differences in temporal parameters of four microstate classes were compared.

Results: The results demonstrated the greater presence of microstate B in both Meth-dependent patients and HCs during the cue-induced condition, compared to resting state. In addition, for Meth-dependent patients, microstate C occurred significantly less frequently, along with a tendency of increased occurrence for class D during the cue-induced condition, compared to resting state. However, the change direction of class C and class D in HCs was completely opposite to that of Meth-dependent patients. The cue-induced condition also elicited different changes in transition probability between Meth-dependent patients and HCs.

Conclusion: This study explored the features of EEG microstates in Meth-dependent patients during the cue-induced condition, which can improve our understanding of Meth addiction and contribute to the development of effective assessments and intervention tools.

Keywords: EEG microstates analysis; cue-induced craving; methamphetamine dependence; resting state; virtual reality.