The Effect Of Heroin Cues To Working Memory Updating Of Heroin Abstainers With Different Withdrawal Phase

Working memory updating is an important central executive function,which is necessary for complete cognitive function.It's main function is to monitor the input information,which uses the new information that related much to the current task to replace the old information that related less to the current task to keep the content of memory correction.Previous studies have shown that drug use can have an impact on the working memory of the individual,causing abnormal neural activity,even if the drug user is not in a state of withdrawal or craving.Long-term use of drug will make drug cues get the characteristic of obtaining the attention of drug addicts,and it will strengthen drug craving for drug addicts.Although there is an evidence that those information which remain in the working memory are more prominent,the individual needs a lot of attention to point to the information,and drug cues has been prominent for drug users,so when the individual again encountered these drug cues,it's more difficult for individuals who want to get rid of this information,which cause great challenges to drug users.But there is no study to investigate the working memory updating of heroin abstainers under the exposure to cue conditions.In addition,whether the cognitive function of addicts is reversible is controversy in recent years,then whether the working memory updating of heroin abstainers will be restored with the increase of withdrawal time? The above questions need to be further explored.In this study,two experiments were conducted.In experiment 1,the N-back task was used,we selected short,long-term heroin withdrawal abstainers and normal subjects respectively,and their working memory updating ability was compared.The results showed that the RT of heroin abstainers in working memory is significantly longer than that of the normal person,and the ACC is lower than normal person,and the difference of heroin abstainers and normal person was increased as the working memory load increases.In experiment 2,we still using N-back paradigm,adding neutral cues and drug cues as the background of stimulus,we selected short,long-term heroin abstainers and normal people 28,27 and 27 respectively,the working memory updating ability of three groups of subjects were investigated under the condition of neutral cues and drug cues,the results show that the RT of heroin abstainers under the drug cue condition was longer than under the neutral cue condition,and the ACC was lower.The results of experiment 1 and experiment 2 both show that there is no significant difference in RT and ACC between short-term heroin abstainers and long-term heroin abstainers.In summary,this study draws two conclusions:(1)the working memory updating of heroin abstainers ability is damaged;(2)the existence of drug cues can interfere the working memory updating of heroin abstainers.