BACKGROUND Stimulant use and sexual behaviors have been linked in behavioral and epidemiological studies. Although methamphetamine-related neurofunctional differences have been investigated, few studies have examined neural responses to drug and sexual cues with respect to shorter or longer term methamphetamine abstinence in individuals with methamphetamine dependence. METHODS Forty-nine men with shorter term methamphetamine abstinence, 50 men with longer term methamphetamine abstinence, and 47 non-drug-using healthy comparison men completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging cue-reactivity task consisting of methamphetamine, sexual, and neutral visual cues. RESULTS Region-of-interest analyses revealed greater methamphetamine cue-related activation in shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence individuals relative to healthy comparison men in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. A significant interaction of group and condition in the anterior insula was found. Relative to healthy comparison participants, both shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence groups displayed greater sexual cue-related anterior insula activation relative to methamphetamine cues and neutral cues, but there were no differences between shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence groups in anterior insula responses. Subsequent whole-brain analyses indicated a group-by-condition interaction with longer term methamphetamine abstinence participants showing greater sexual-related activation in the left superior frontal cortex relative to healthy comparison men. Shorter term methamphetamine abstinence participants showed greater superior frontal cortex activation to sexual relative to neutral cues, and longer term methamphetamine abstinence participants showed greater superior frontal cortex activation to sexual relative to neutral and methamphetamine cues. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that abstinence from methamphetamine may alter how individuals respond to drug and sexual cues and thus may influence drug use and sexual behaviors. Given the use of methamphetamine for sexual purposes and responses to natural vs drug rewards for addiction recovery, the findings may have particular clinical relevance.

中文翻译：

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短期和长期戒断甲基苯丙胺依赖的男性与甲基苯丙胺和性暗示相关的神经功能差异。

背景 在行为学和流行病学研究中，兴奋剂的使用和性行为是相互关联的。尽管已经研究了甲基苯丙胺相关的神经功能差异，但很少有研究检查了甲基苯丙胺依赖个体对药物和性暗示的神经反应与短期或长期甲基苯丙胺戒断有关的情况。方法 49 名短期戒除甲基苯丙胺的男性、50 名长期戒除甲基苯丙胺的男性和 47 名不使用药物的健康对照男性完成了一项功能性磁共振成像提示反应性任务，包括甲基苯丙胺、性和中性视觉线索。结果 感兴趣区域分析显示，相对于腹内侧前额叶皮层的健康对照男性，短期甲基苯丙胺戒断和长期甲基苯丙胺戒断个体的甲基苯丙胺提示相关激活更大。发现前岛叶中组和条件的显着相互作用。相对于健康的对照组参与者，短期甲基苯丙胺戒断组和长期甲基苯丙胺戒断组均显示出与甲基苯丙胺提示和中性提示相比更大的性提示相关的前岛叶激活，但短期甲基苯丙胺戒断组和长期甲基苯丙胺戒断组之间没有差异在前岛叶反应中。随后的全脑分析表明，与健康对照男性相比，长期戒除甲基苯丙胺的参与者在左上额叶皮层中表现出更大的性相关激活。短期甲基苯丙胺戒断参与者对性相对于中性线索表现出更大的额叶皮质激活，而长期甲基苯丙胺戒断参与者对性相对于中性和甲基苯丙胺线索表现出更大的额叶皮质激活。结论 研究结果表明，戒除甲基苯丙胺可能会改变个人对毒品和性暗示的反应，从而可能影响吸毒和性行为。鉴于将甲基苯丙胺用于性目的以及对成瘾恢复的自然与药物奖励的反应，