The cue-reactivity paradigm is a widely adopted neuroimaging probe engendering brain activity linked with attentional, affective, and reward processes following presentation of appetitive stimuli. Given the multiple mental operations invoked, we sought to decompose cue-related brain activity into constituent components employing emergent meta-analytic techniques when considering drug and natural reward-related cues. We conducted coordinate-based meta-analyses delineating common and distinct brain activity convergence across cue-reactivity studies (N = 196 articles) involving drug (n = 133) or natural (n = 63) visual stimuli. Across all studies, convergence was observed in limbic, cingulate, insula, and fronto-parieto-occipital regions. Drug-distinct convergence was observed in posterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, and temporo-parietal regions, whereas distinct-natural convergence was observed in thalamic, insular, orbitofrontal, and occipital regions. We characterized connectivity profiles of identified regions by leveraging task-independent and task-dependent MRI datasets, grouped these profiles into subnetworks, and linked each with putative mental operations. Outcomes suggest multifaceted brain activity during cue-reactivity can be decomposed into elemental processes and indicate that while drugs of abuse usurp the brain’s natural-reward-processing system, some regions appear distinct to drug cue-reactivity.

线索反应范式是一种广泛采用的神经影像学探针，在出现食欲刺激后产生与注意力、情感和奖励过程相关的大脑活动。考虑到所调用的多种心理操作，在考虑与药物和自然奖励相关的线索时，我们试图利用新兴的元分析技术将与线索相关的大脑活动分解为组成部分。我们进行了基于坐标的荟萃分析，描述 了涉及药物（n  = 133）或自然（n  = 63）视觉刺激的线索反应性研究（N = 196 篇文章）中常见和不同的大脑活动收敛。在所有研究中，在边缘、扣带回、岛叶和额顶枕区观察到收敛。在后扣带回、背外侧前额叶和颞顶叶区域观察到药物明显的收敛，而在丘脑、岛叶、眶额和枕叶区域观察到明显的自然收敛。我们通过利用与任务无关和任务相关的 MRI 数据集来表征已识别区域的连接配置文件，将这些配置文件分组为子网络，并将每个配置文件与假定的心理操作联系起来。结果表明，线索反应期间的多方面大脑活动可以分解为基本过程，并表明虽然滥用药物篡夺了大脑的自然奖励处理系统，但某些区域似乎与药物线索反应不同。