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Identification of the Features of Emotional Dysfunction in Female Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder Measured by Musical Stimuli Modulated Startle Reflex

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Emotional dysregulation contributes to the development of substance use disorders (SUDs) and is highly associated with drug abuse and relapse. Music as a contextual auditory stimulus can effectively stimulate the reward circuitry, modulate memory associated with drug taking, and enhance emotional experiences during drug taking. However, the studies of the emotional responses to music in individuals with SUDs are scarce. Using startle reflex and self-reports, this study assessed the psychophysiological and cognitive emotional responses (i.e., valence, arousal and proximity) to happy, peaceful, and fearful music stimuli in 30 females with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) and 30 healthy females. The results found that participants with MUD showed an inhibited startle response to fearful music compared to normal controls (t = 3.7, p < 0.01), and no significant differences were found in the startle responses to happy and peaceful music between the two groups. For the self-reported ratings, participants with MUD showed a decreased arousal in the response to fearful (t = 4.1, p < 0.01) and happy music (t = 3.8, p < 0.01), an increased valence in the response to fearful music (t = 4.4, p < 0.01), and a higher level of proximity in the response to fearful (t = 3.8, p < 0.01) and happy music (t = 2.2, p = 0.03). No significant differences were found in the rating of arousal to peaceful music, the valence to happy and peaceful music, as well as the proximity to peaceful music between the two groups. The females with MUD showed attenuated psychophysiological response and potentiated cognitive response (i.e., valence, arousal) to fearful music, as well as a high proximity to musical stimuli with high arousal regardless of its valence. These results have important implications for promoting the effectiveness of assessment and therapy selections for female MUD patients with impaired emotion regulation.
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 05 June 2018
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00230
Identification of the Features of
Emotional Dysfunction in Female
Individuals With Methamphetamine
Use Disorder Measured by Musical
Stimuli Modulated Startle Reflex
Xi-Jing Chen1,2,Chun-Guang Wang 3,Wang Liu 1,2,Monika Gorowska 2,Dong-Mei
Wang1,2* and Yong-Hui Li1,2
1CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China, 2Department of Psychology, University of
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 3Beijing Municipal Bureau of Drug Rehabilitation Administration, Beijing, China
Edited by:
Xiaochu Zhang,
University of Science and Technology
of China, China
Reviewed by:
Lingdan Wu,
Universität Konstanz, Germany
Annie Lynne Heiderscheit,
Augsburg College, United States
*Correspondence:
Dong-Mei Wang
wangdm@psych.ac.cn
Received: 28 February 2018
Accepted: 18 May 2018
Published: 05 June 2018
Citation:
Chen X-J, Wang C-G, Liu W,
Gorowska M, Wang D-M and Li Y-H
(2018) Identification of the Features
of Emotional Dysfunction in Female
Individuals With Methamphetamine
Use Disorder Measured by Musical
Stimuli Modulated Startle Reflex.
Front. Hum. Neurosci. 12:230.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00230
Emotional dysregulation contributes to the development of substance use disorders
(SUDs) and is highly associated with drug abuse and relapse. Music as a contextual
auditory stimulus can effectively stimulate the reward circuitry, modulate memory
associated with drug taking, and enhance emotional experiences during drug taking.
However, the studies of the emotional responses to music in individuals with SUDs are
scarce. Using startle reflex and self-reports, this study assessed the psychophysiological
and cognitive emotional responses (i.e., valence, arousal and proximity) to happy,
peaceful, and fearful music stimuli in 30 females with methamphetamine use disorder
(MUD) and 30 healthy females. The results found that participants with MUD showed
an inhibited startle response to fearful music compared to normal controls (t= 3.7,
p<0.01), and no significant differences were found in the startle responses to happy
and peaceful music between the two groups. For the self-reported ratings, participants
with MUD showed a decreased arousal in the response to fearful (t= 4.1, p<0.01) and
happy music (t= 3.8, p<0.01), an increased valence in the response to fearful music
(t= 4.4, p<0.01), and a higher level of proximity in the response to fearful (t= 3.8,
p<0.01) and happy music (t= 2.2, p= 0.03). No significant differences were found
in the rating of arousal to peaceful music, the valence to happy and peaceful music, as
well as the proximity to peaceful music between the two groups. The females with MUD
showed attenuated psychophysiological response and potentiated cognitive response
(i.e., valence, arousal) to fearful music, as well as a high proximity to musical stimuli
with high arousal regardless of its valence. These results have important implications
for promoting the effectiveness of assessment and therapy selections for female MUD
patients with impaired emotion regulation.
Keywords: substance use disorders, methamphetamine, music stimuli, startle reflex, females
Abbreviations: MUD, methamphetamine use disorder; SUDs, substance use disorders.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org 1June 2018 | Volume 12 | Article 230
Chen et al. Emotional Dysfunction in Methamphetamine Use Disorder
INTRODUCTION
Substance use disorders (SUDs) is featured as ‘‘a cluster of
cognitive, behavioral and physiological symptoms indicating
that the individual continues using the substance despite
significant substance-related problems’’ in Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition ([DSM-
5], p. 483, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Emotional
dysregulation is an important problem that contributes to
the development of SUDs (London et al., 2004, 2015).
Chronic drug abuse involves the plastic change in the neural
circuits mediating the reward system and anti-reward system
(Koob and Moal, 2005). With the prolongation of drug
use, the reward system increases its threshold (i.e., decrease
neurotransmitter function) as a neuroadaptive change to
make abusers become more difficult to experience pleasure
feelings, and the anti-reward system including corticotrophin-
releasing factor, norepinephrine and dynorphin are activated
to produce negative or stress states. Consequently, depression
and anxiety become the two most prevalent negative emotions
in methamphetamine abusers (London et al., 2004). Moreover,
research found the hypoactivation of the ventromedial prefrontal
cortex/anterior cingulate cortex (vmPFC/rACC) and abnormal
(i.e., no activation, hypoactivation, or hyperactivation) activation
of amygdala and insula in individuals with SUDs (Salloum et al.,
2007; Gilman and Hommer, 2008; O’Daly et al., 2012; Wilcox
et al., 2016). These findings indicate the dysfunctional emotion
regulation in people with SUDs, including dampened cognitive
function for inhibiting intense affect, and abnormal emotion
processing and reactivity.
Emotional reactivity has been commonly applied as one
dimension for assessing the impairment of emotional regulation
in people with SUDs (Blanchart et al., 2008; Smoski et al.,
2011; Savvas et al., 2012). Previous studies that utilized visual
emotional stimuli (i.e., pictures, facial expressions, videos) for
eliciting emotional responses found inconsistent findings across
the different types of drug users. Stimulant substance users
(e.g., cocaine) demonstrated a more sensitive perception to the
pleasant to unpleasant stimuli, and depressant users (e.g., heroin)
tended to neutralize the rating on both unpleasant and pleasant
stimuli (Kornreich et al., 2003; Aguilar de Arcos et al., 2005).
These results suggest that there are different characteristics of
emotional experience across drug types depending on the various
clinical impact of drugs. In addition, research found the gender
differences in emotion regulation between female and male
with SUDs (Potenza et al., 2012). Compared to male cocaine
dependents, female dependents showed an increased activation
in amygdala and insula during a personalized stressful narrative,
indicating that female with SUDs may be more vulnerable and
experience more emotion regulation difficulties when facing
stress. These findings suggest that gender should be taken into
consideration in the assessment and therapy selection for treating
people with SUDs.
The emotional reactivity can be measured using self-reports
and psychophysiological measurements. The self-reported
valence, arousal and proximity of emotions assess the cognitive
aspect of emotion regulation (i.e., emotion recognition,
perception). Valence refers to the nature of the emotional
stimulus (i.e., positive vs. negative, or pleasurable vs. unpleasant);
arousal refers to the intensity of the stimulus (i.e., low or
high intensity); and proximity refers to the motivational
reaction toward the emotional stimulus (i.e., approach or
avoidance). Valence and arousal reflect the nature and intensity
of motivational activation respectively (Bradley et al., 2001). The
research found that individuals with SUDs reported high arousal
(i.e., increase of anxiety, heart rate and salivary cortisol levels),
negative valence (increased negative emotion), and avoidance
motivation in the response to stressful stimuli, which often lead
to drug craving and abuse (Sinha et al., 2000; Baker et al., 2004).
Psychophysiological measurements mainly focus on assessing
the implicit physiological responses to emotions with or without
consciousness. Startle reflex is an effective measure that has been
extensively used for probing emotional reactivity (Lang et al.,
1990; Cook et al., 1992). As a response of the defensive emotional
system, it can record the automatic defensive reaction (i.e., the
amplitude of the eye link) in response to a loud white noise.
The startle reflex is enhanced in response to negative emotional
stimuli and is inhibited in response to positive emotional stimuli
in normal people (Lang et al., 1998; Bradley and Lang, 2000).
Music as auditory stimuli can effectively modulate emotional
experience. Music reward involves the brain regions that highly
overlap with the regions of drug reward (Salimpoor et al., 2011;
Zatorre and Salimpoor, 2013). A fMRI study (Menon and Levitin,
2005) found that music mediated the activity of mesolimbic
reward circuitry including nucleus accumbens (NAcc), ventral
tegmental area (VTA), hypothalamus and insula. Pleasant music
significantly activated the interaction between the NAcc and
hypothalamus, as well as insula and orbitofrontal cortex (Blum
et al., 2010). The quality of musical elements (e.g., rhythm,
harmony, timbre, musical structure, speed, power and melody) is
associated with the valence and arousal of emotional experiences
(Zhou, 1999). It is important to note the distinct characteristics
of music as an emotional stimulus comparing to other kinds
of emotional stimuli (e.g., picture, video, script). For example,
people normally withdraw or avoid from the negative emotional
stimuli, yet some listeners have an approach motivation toward
sad music that match their affect state for improving mood
(Garrido and Schubert, 2013).
Moreover, musical experience and training can change
the plasticity of brain regions related to emotion regulation.
Musicians and people with musical training exhibited a higher
level of musical rewarding experience than people with no
musical background (Mas-Herrero et al., 2013). A EEG study
revealed that after 3 months of improvisational music therapy
for depressed clients, significant increased absolute power was
found at left fronto-temporal alpha and theta, indicating the
impact of music intervention on reducing depression and anxiety
symptoms (Fachner et al., 2013). Gender effect was found when
use music for emotion regulation. The activation of medial
prefrontal cortex (mPFC) decreases in males and increases in
females during music listening (Carlson et al., 2015).
In the context of SUDs, animal study demonstrated that
after repeatedly associated with methamphetamine, music as
a contextual conditioned stimulus can significantly increase
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Chen et al. Emotional Dysfunction in Methamphetamine Use Disorder
extracellular dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens and
basolateral amygdala, as well as locomotor activity in rats
(Polston et al., 2011), suggesting that music can effectively
stimulate the dopamine circuitry and modulate associated
memory of drug taking. An investigation of 143 substance
abusers found that music was a common contextual stimulus
during drug using. Seventy percent of the substance abusers
listened to music for more than 1 h each day, and reported that
music enhanced their emotional experience during drug taking
(Dingle et al., 2015).
Despite the powerful impact of music on emotion regulation,
the studies of emotional responses to music in people with
SUDs are scarce. Given the different neurotoxicity of drugs
and gender effect, the aim of this study is to explore the
emotional perception and responses to music stimuli in females
with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). We hypothesize
that female individuals with MUD will have a biased emotional
perception and response to pleasant and unpleasant musical
stimuli compared to normal controls.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Participants
Thirty female participants with MUD were recruited from the
Xin-He Drug Rehabilitation Center, and 30 healthy female
participants as controls were recruited from a manufacture
factory in Beijing, China. Two psychologists interviewed
all participants for gathering demographic information and
screening, and then participants filled out the State-Trait Anxiety
Inventory, Beck Depression, and Barcelona Music Reward
Questionnaire for assessing anxiety, depression and musical
reward sensitivity.
For the MUD participants, the inclusion criteria are:
(1) aged 18–55 years; (2) a history of using methamphetamine
and fulfilled the diagnosis of stimulant use disorder in
the Chinese version of DSM-5 (pp. 232–238, American
Psychiatric Association, 2014). Stimulant use disorder refers
to the clinically significant impairment or distress caused by
the use of amphetamine-type substance, cocaine, or other
kinds of stimulant, such as amphetamine, dextroamphetamine,
methamphetamine, cocaine and methylphenidate.
Exclusion criteria: (1) a history of brain damage or a
coma over 30 min; (2) a history of using other kind of
drugs (e.g., heroin, cocaine); (3) illiteracy; (4) a history or a
family history of mental illness; and (5) hearing problems. All
participants had no musical training history. The study was
carried out in accordance with the recommendation of the
Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the
Ethics Committee of Institute of Psychology, CAS (H17001). All
subjects gave a written informed consent in accordance with the
Declaration of Helsinki.
Musical Excerpts
Three musical excerpts presenting three emotions (i.e., happy,
fearful, peaceful) were adapted from a previous study (Vieillard
et al., 2008). Five excerpts of each emotion were selected out of a
pool of 42 excerpts based on the assessment of 30 music majored
colleague students. They evaluated the valence (0 = pleasant,
9 = unpleasant) and arousal (0 = relaxing, 9 = stimulating) of
each musical excerpt using a Likert scale. The happy excerpts
were selected based on the high arousal and valence, the fearful
excerpts were selected based on the high arousal and low valence,
and the peaceful excerpts were selected based on the low arousal
and high valence. Then the top five excerpts of each emotion were
selected for the study (see Supplementary Table S1 for the list of
the music excerpts).
Fifteen chosen music excerpts were further evaluated and
validated by 46 college students with no musical training on the
dimensions of valence, arousal and proximity (0 = approach,
9 = withdraw). In terms of valence, happy excerpts was higher
than peaceful excerpts (t= 5.6, p<0.01) and fearful excerpts
(t= 16.95, p<0.01), and peaceful excerpts was higher than
fearful excerpts (t= 12.25, p<0.01); in terms of arousal, peaceful
excerpts was lower than happy excerpts (t=7.59, p<0.01)
and fearful excerpts (t=5.45, p<0.01), and there was no
significant difference between happy and fearful excerpts; in
terms of proximity, fearful excerpts was lower than peaceful
excerpts (t=16.69, p<0.01) and happy excerpts (t=14.02,
p<0.01), and no significant difference was found between happy
and peaceful excerpts. The results indicated that the selected
music excerpts elicited differentiated emotions corresponding
with their valence, arousal, and proximity. All music excerpts
were piano melodic music produced by a digital synthesizer with
a duration from 10 s to 14 s. Each excerpt was normalized to
equate loudness using the normalization function of the Audition
3software.
Measurements
Startle Reflex
White noise of 100 dB, 50 ms burst was presented over Sony
MDR-XB500AP head-phones to elicit startle responses. Five
white noise probes were presented during the first minute with
a randomized interval before the presentation of music stimuli.
Then three types of music excerpts were presented with a 3 s
interval between each excerpt, and each type of music was
presented with three randomly placed startle probes (Figure 1).
For startle data recording, the Eye-blink Electromyographic
(EMG) data were collected from the orbicularis oculi using two
mini-electrodes placed below the left eye (Larson et al., 2005).
After each white noise, EMG activity (µv) was automatically
recorded. EMG signals pass through bandpass filtered at 10 and
500 Hz and were amplified by 1000. The sampling rate was set
at 1000 Hz. The maximum amplitude of each response between
20 ms and 120 ms after startle probe onset was considered as
valid data and included for analysis (Balaban et al., 1986). To
reduce individual variability in the raw startle reflex data, the raw
data were standardized within in each participant, In the light of
a previous study (Roy et al., 2009), the standardized score was
expressed as T scores (50 + 10 Hz), which led to a mean of 50 and
a standard deviation of 10 for each participant.
Self-Reported Emotional Responses
Self-reported emotional responses to music excerpt were
measured using a Likert scale scored from 0 to 9. After each music
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Chen et al. Emotional Dysfunction in Methamphetamine Use Disorder
FIGURE 1 | Distribution of probes during the presentation of three types of music excerpts. Note:White noise probe.
excerpt, the participants assess it on the dimension of valence
(0: unpleasant, 9: pleasant), arousal (0: relaxing, 9: stimulating),
and proximity (0: withdraw, 9: approach).
Anxiety
Anxiety was measured using the Chinese version of State-trait
Anxiety Inventory. It consists of 20 items and ranged from 20 to
80. Higher scores indicate higher level of anxiety.
Depression
Depression was measured using the Chinese version of Beck
Depression Inventory. It consists of 13 items and ranged from
0 to 63 (4–7: mild depression, 8–15: moderated depression, 16 or
higher: severe depression). Higher scores indicate higher level of
depression.
Musical Reward Sensitivity
Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire was developed
by Mas-Herrero and his colleagues (Mas-Herrero et al.,
2013) for assessing music reward sensitivity. It evaluates
the sensitivity to music from the dimensions of emotional
evocation, sensory-motor, mood regulation, musical seeking
and social reward. It consists of 20 items and scored
from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). A
higher score indicates a higher level of musical reward
sensitivity (0–40: low, 40–60: standard, 60 or higher:
high).
Procedure
The researcher helped the participants to put on headphones
and affix the electrodes for startle reflex. The participants sat
comfortably in a quiet room and watched natural scenes (i.e., the
sea life aquarium) on a computer screen for 1 min to relax.
Before the presentation of the music stimuli, five white noise
probes were played randomly during 1 min. Then, three types
emotional music excerpts were presented in a counterbalanced
order across subjects. The startle reflex responses were recorded
during the listening process. After each music excerpt, the
participants rated the valence, arousal and proximity of the
excerpt.
Data Analysis
Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Product and
Service Solutions (SPSS) 17.0. The comparison of demographic
information, anxiety, depression, music reward, self-reported
ratings and startle reflex between two groups were analyzed using
independent sample t-test.
RESULTS
The two groups were matched in age, anxiety, depression and
musical reward sensitivity (Table 1). The control group had
more years of education than the methamphetamine (MA)
group.
Startle Reflex
Compared to the normal control, the MA group showed
a lower level of startle response to fearful music (MA:
49.08, Control: 53.66, t= 3.7, p<0.01). There was no
significant difference in the response to peaceful and happy
music between the two groups, although the startle reflex
TABLE 1 | The comparison between the two groups in demographic information and clinical characteristics.
Methamphetamine group Control group Difference
(n= 30) (n= 30) p
Outcome M (SD) M (SD)
Age (year) 30.97 (7.41) 29.58 (7.17) 0.09
Education (year) 9.21 (3.12) 12.30 (2.14) 0.01∗∗
BMRQ 76.21 (9.08) 75.83 (7.31) 0.07
BDI 12.63 (9.69) 12.35 (9.35) 0.08
TSAI (state) 37 (10.38) 36.67 (9.56) 0.07
TSAI (trait) 39.64 (7.93) 40.21 (8.22) 0.06
Abstinent period (month) 8.68 (3.64) - -
Total time of drug use (month) 35.23 (22.41) - -
Total drug use amount in a year (gram) 82.35 (124.53) - -
Note. BMRQ, Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire; BDI, Beck Depression Inventory; STAI, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory; ∗∗ p0.01.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org 4June 2018 | Volume 12 | Article 230
Chen et al. Emotional Dysfunction in Methamphetamine Use Disorder
FIGURE 2 | Startle reflex amplitudes in response to three emotional music excerpts in the two groups. Note: MA, methamphetamine group; Control, healthy control
group; ∗∗p0.01.
FIGURE 3 | The self-reported emotions of arousal, valence and proximity in the two groups. Note: MA, methamphetamine group; Control, healthy control group; p
0.05, ∗∗p0.01.
amplitudes to both music stimuli in the MA group were higher
(Figure 2).
Self-Reported Emotions
Compared to the control group, the MA group showed a lower
level of arousal in response to happy music (t= 3.8, p<0.01)
and fearful music (t= 4.1, p<0.01), a higher valence (i.e., more
pleasant) in response to fearful music (t= 4.4, p<0.01),
and a higher proximity (i.e., approach motive) in response to
happy (t= 2.2, p= 0.03) and fearful music (t= 3.8, p<0.01;
Figure 3).
DISCUSSION
The female participants with MUD showed an inhibited startle
response to negative (i.e., fearful) music, and a tendency of
potentiated startle response to positive music (i.e., happy,
peaceful). These reactivities that opposite to the reactions in
normal people may indicate the impaired emotional processing
and emotional regulation (Lang et al., 1998; Bradley and
Lang, 2000). Moreover, the increased self-reported valence to
fearful music, and decreased self-reported arousal of MUD
participants to both positive and negative music accords with
their dysfunctional startle reflex response, which reflects the
dampened emotional perception on the emotional valence and
arousal. These findings are in line with previous studies (Carrico
et al., 2013; May et al., 2013) that people with SUDs show
attenuated response to emotional stimuli.
The participants with MUD showed a higher level of valence
and lower level of arousal, as well as a decreased startle response
to fearful music than the normal controls suggesting their
biased emotional perception and psychophysiological reactivity
to music. Tempo and harmony influence the arousal and
valence of music emotional experience respectively (Gomez
and Danuser, 2007; Hodges, 2010). The fearful music excerpts
used in the study feature fast tempo and dissonant melodies,
which may create intense and stimulating feelings. The MUD
participants also showed a higher level of proximity to both
positive and negative music with high arousal. Given the
chronic drug use impairs the reward system, individuals with
dampened reward function may seek for the strong stimulant
feature of high arousal music to acquire pleasurable feelings.
Huron (2011) pointed out that the brain can distinguish ‘‘fake’’
negative emotions in music from real threat in life, therefore
it is ‘‘safe’’ for people to enjoy music that conveys negative
emotions. Drug abusers tend to use drugs to decrease or avoid
negative feelings (Otto et al., 2004). To be open and experience
‘‘negative’’ music and may help them to face their negative
feelings and deal with their problems instead of taking drugs.
For music therapy, music with high arousal may be used to
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Chen et al. Emotional Dysfunction in Methamphetamine Use Disorder
attract the attention and increase the motivation of patients
with SUDs.
It is noteworthy that there was no significant difference in
the cognitive responses including valence, arousal, and proximity
to peaceful music between the two groups. Given depression
and anxiety are the two most prominent negative emotions in
methamphetamine users (London et al., 2004), this result may
suggest the suitability of using peaceful music for relaxation in
treating patients with MUD as they may respond well to peaceful
music. In addition to music listening, active musical activities
such as improvisation can help people to explore and express
various feelings, facilitate meaningful communicate, gain public
recognition and bring a sense of achievement (Soshensky, 2001;
Baker et al., 2007; Silverman, 2009).
The study has several limitations. Only female subjects
with MUD participated in this study, there is a lack of the
comparison between two genders. The educations years in
participants with MUD are less than the healthy controls.
However, the music listening task did not require a high level
of cognitive function, therefore we suppose this difference did
not affect the task. The future study will add male participants,
improve the comparability of the two groups, and supply more
psychophysiological measurements, such as ERP, EEG, skin
conductance.
In summary, the study utilized emotional music stimuli to
elicit emotional responses of female individuals with MUD,
and assessed them with cognitive and psychophysiological
measurements. The results found that the females with MUD
showed inhibited psychophysiological and cognitive emotional
responses to fearful music, and a high proximity to musical
stimuli with high arousal regardless of its valence. These results
have important implications for promoting the effectiveness of
assessment and therapy for female MUD patients with impaired
emotion regulation.
DATASETS ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to
any qualified researcher.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
X-JC designed and implemented the experiment, analyzed the
data and drafted the manuscript. C-GW and WL conducted the
interview for the participants. MG helped with the data collection
process. D-MW and Y-HL guided the study design and directed
the experiment implementation.
FUNDING
This work was supported by the National Key Research
and Development Program of China (2017YFC1310405,
2016YFC0800907), the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (U1736124, 31371035), and the CAS Key Lab of Mental
Health (Y7CX424007).
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online
at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.002
30/full#supplementary-material
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Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was
conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Copyright © 2018 Chen, Wang, Liu, Gorowska, Wang and Li. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic
practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply
with these terms.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org 7June 2018 | Volume 12 | Article 230

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... Acknowledging that previous research mainly focused on the negative consequences of music on PAS use, little remains known about its influence on the well-being of individuals with a problematic PAS use. Nevertheless, 16 articles reported some form of beneficial impacts of music on their well-being [35,[54][55][56]67,88,[91][92][93]96,97,100,103,105,112,113]. They show that though a majority of young adults listen to music for emotionally oriented well-being motives, young adults from the general population as well as those who use PAS might benefit differently from the impact of music [88,96]. ...
... Nevertheless, 16 articles reported some form of beneficial impacts of music on their well-being [35,[54][55][56]67,88,[91][92][93]96,97,100,103,105,112,113]. They show that though a majority of young adults listen to music for emotionally oriented well-being motives, young adults from the general population as well as those who use PAS might benefit differently from the impact of music [88,96]. Namely, PAS users are more likely to use it to promote their emotional well-being whereas it is more common for their non-user peers to use music merely for pleasure [91][92][93]. ...
Article
Issues Music is among the most frequently used medium to promote young adults' well‐being. To that aim, the efficiency of music is explained by its capacity to modulate emotions through its effect on the brain's reward pathways. Hence, music could help individuals suffering from dysregulations in these pathways, whose experience of positive emotions is often inhibited. Such dysregulations are particularly present in individuals with problematic psychoactive substance (PAS) use, who are overrepresented in the context of homelessness. While few of them initiate treatment, they successfully rely on their own resources to promote their well‐being, including music, though its impact in this context remains under‐studied. Approach This scoping review describes the impact of music on the well‐being, PAS use and addictive trajectory of young housed and homeless individuals with problematic PAS use. Eleven French and English databases were screened for peer‐reviewed articles using concepts and keywords related to music, PAS and well‐being. From the 3697 results, 39 were reviewed. Results were organised according to the observed impact of music and analysed critically. Key Findings Literature shows that PAS users value the impact of music in meeting emotional, psychological and social needs, especially when they experience homelessness. Yet, research has been highly limited to the harmful consequences of music, limiting our knowledge of its potential benefits. Implications and Conclusion To deepen our understanding about the impact of music, future research should endorse a broader perspective and consider the personal and contextual experiences accompanying the involvement in music, factors that were traditionally overlooked.
... The exclusion criteria are as follows: 1) a history of using illicit drugs other than methamphetamine or methamphetamine tablets (e.g., heroin, cocaine, marijuana); 2) uncontrolled medical illnesses or psychosis; 3) use of any medication or medical condition that may affect cardiovascular function and mental state; 4) some kinds of nervous system diseases may influence performing the experiment (e.g., epilepsy, parkinsonism); 5) a history of head trauma that caused a coma lasting more than 30 min; 6) movement disorders; 7) hearing impairments; 8) color blindness or color amblyopia; 9) a vision or corrected visual acuity less than 1.0. The subjects with psychiatric comorbidities and other kinds of SUDs will be excluded using DSM-5 (27,29). ...
... STAI is a widely used scale for general anxiety (33,34). Chronic methamphetamine use may cause emotional dysfunction including anxiety (29). The Chinese version of STAI is a 20-item self-report instrument with a satisfying internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0. 88) (35) and scores from 20 (absence of anxiety) to 80 (high anxiety). ...
Article
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Background Relapse, often precipitated by drug-associated cues that evoke craving, is a key problem in the treatment of methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). Drug-associated memories play a major role in the maintenance of relapse. Extinction training is a common method for decreasing drug craving by suppressing drug-associated memories. However, the effects are often not permanent, which is evident in form of spontaneous recovery or renewal of cue-elicited responses. Based on memory reconsolidation theory, the retrieval-extinction (R-E) paradigm may be more effective in decreasing spontaneous recovery or renewal responses than extinction. After the original memory reactivated to a labile state, extinction will be introduced within the reconsolidation window, thereby updating drug-associated memories. However, there are still some controversial results, which suggest that the reactivation of drug-associated memories and the 10 min-6 h of limited time window are two main elements in the R-E protocol. Virtual reality (VR) is supposed to promote memory reactivation by providing vivid drug-related stimuli when compared with movies. Objective The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of R-E training combined with VR on reducing spontaneous recovery or renewal of cue-elicited responses, in comparison to extinction, R-E training provided outside the time window of 6 h and R-E training retrieved using videos, in methamphetamine abusers. Methods The study is a parallel matched controlled study including 95 participants with MUD. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a R-10 min-E group (methamphetamine-related cues retrieval in VR followed by extinction after 10 min) or a NR-10 min-E group (neutral cues retrieval in VR followed by extinction after 10 min) or a R-6 h-E group (methamphetamine-related cues retrieval in VR followed by extinction after 6 h) or a RV-10 min-E group (methamphetamine-related cues retrieval in videos followed by extinction after 10 min). Cue-evoked craving and reactivity will be assessed at pre-test and at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and 6-month post-tests. Discussion To our knowledge, this study will probably be the first study to examine the efficacy of R-E training combined with VR to reduce cue-evoked responses in people with MUD. This innovative non-pharmacological intervention targeting drug-associated memories may provide significant clinical implications for reducing relapse, providing the study confirms its efficacy. Clinical Trial Registration The trial is registered with Chinese Clinical Trial Registry at 17 October 2018, number: ChiCTR1800018899, URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=30854
... According to an epidemiological survey, in 2019, there were over 27 million people reported using Meth (0.5% of the global population) 2 . Meth abuse can cause long-term neuropsychiatric impairments 3e5 , while anxiety and depression were reported as the most pervasive mental disorders in Meth abusers 6,7 . ...
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Methamphetamine (Meth) abuse can cause serious mental disorders, including anxiety and depression. The gut microbiota is a crucial contributor to maintaining host mental health. Here, we aim to investigate if microbiota participate in Meth-induced mental disorders, and the potential mechanisms involved. Here, 15 mg/kg Meth resulted in anxiety- and depression-like behaviors of mice successfully and suppressed the Sigma-1 receptor (SIGMAR1)/BDNF/TRKB pathway in the hippocampus. Meanwhile, Meth impaired gut homeostasis by arousing the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-related colonic inflammation, disturbing the gut microbiome and reducing the microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Moreover, fecal microbiota from Meth-administrated mice mediated the colonic inflammation and reproduced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in recipients. Further, SCFAs supplementation optimized Meth-induced microbial dysbiosis, ameliorated colonic inflammation, and repressed anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. Finally, Sigmar1 knockout (Sigmar1−/−) repressed the BDNF/TRKB pathway and produced similar behavioral phenotypes with Meth exposure, and eliminated the anti-anxiety and -depression effects of SCFAs. The activation of SIGMAR1 with fluvoxamine attenuated Meth-induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. Our findings indicated that gut microbiota-derived SCFAs could optimize gut homeostasis, and ameliorate Meth-induced mental disorders in a SIGMAR1-dependent manner. This study confirms the crucial role of microbiota in Meth-related mental disorders and provides a potential preemptive therapy.
... According to this survey, in addition to accomplishing tasks and losing weight, women also reported using methamphetamine to feel less depressed, suggesting they may have difficulty regulating their emotions in other ways even prior to initiation of methamphetamine use. This potential deficit in emotion regulation was examined behaviorally among 30 females with MUD (abstinent an average of 8.68 ± 3.64 months) and 30 CTL females using musical stimuli (30). In comparison to CTL, female MUD reported lower arousal ratings and showed an inhibited startle response to fearful music. ...
Article
Full-text available
Methamphetamine use is associated with substantial adverse outcomes including poor mental and physical health, financial difficulties, and societal costs. Despite deleterious long-term consequences associated with methamphetamine, many people use drugs for short-term reduction of unpleasant physical or emotional sensations. By removing these aversive states, drug use behaviors are negatively reinforced. Abstinence from methamphetamine can then result in a return to previous aversive emotional states linked to withdrawal and craving, often contributing to an increased likelihood for relapse. This negative reinforcement cycle is hypothesized to be a motivating and maintaining factor for addiction. Thus, this review highlights the current evidence for negative reinforcement mechanisms in methamphetamine use disorder by integrating studies of subjective experience, behavior, functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and event-related potentials and examining the efficacy of treatments targeting aspects of negative reinforcement. Overall, the literature demonstrates that individuals who use methamphetamine have diminished cognitive control and process emotions, loss of reward, and interoceptive information differently than non-using individuals. These differences are reflected in behavioral and subjective experiments as well as brain-based experiments which report significant differences in various frontal regions, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and striatum. Together, the results suggest methamphetamine users have an altered experience of negative outcomes, difficulties employing effective emotion regulation, and difficulty engaging in adaptive or goal-directed decision-making. Suggestions for future research to improve our understanding of how negative reinforcement contributes to methamphetamine addiction and to develop effective interventions are provided.
... Among the subscales examined, absorption by negative emotion the highest impact factor was related to the dependent variable., which means that non-drug abuser are less attracted by negative emotions (21). This finding is consistent with the studies by Verdejo-García et al. (21), McKay (22), Chen et al. (23). In explaining this finding, it can be argued that absorption by negative emotions in methamphetamine abuser is due to low emotional skills and inability to solve problems, and it seems that methamphetamine abuser have a poor ability to control emotions and deal with issues and make appropriate decisions (24,25). ...
Article
Introduction Evidence suggests that the way of enduring emotional distress plays a role in the tendency of people to abuse drugs. Accordingly, the present study aims to compare the distress tolerance in metamphetamines and drug abusers with non-drug abusers. Methodology The current study is an analytical study. The statistical population includes all the patients abusing methamphetamine and opium as well as non-drug abuser individuals visiting Farabi Hospital of Kermanshah in western Iran in 2018. Among the population, 202 individuals (50 individuals abusing methamphetamine, 52 individuals abusing opium, and 100 non-addicted individuals) were selected using convenient sampling, and then they were approximately matched based on demographic variables. The data were collected using the Distress Tolerance Scale developed by Simons and Gaher and were analyzed using multi-variate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance in SPSS20 statistical software application. Results The finding analysis showed that the score of the concept of absorption by negative emotions (The subscale of distress tolerance) was significantly different between non-drug abusers and methamphetamine abusers (P < 0.05). The mean scores of distress mental evaluation and the overall score of emotional distress tolerance were also statistically significant between non-drug abusers and methamphetamine abusers as well as non-drug abusers and opium abusers. However, this difference was not significant between methamphetamine abusers and opioid abusers (P > 0.05). Conclusion The findings of the current study show that patients abusing opium and methamphetamine are less capable of tolerating distress compared to non-drug abuser.
Article
Background: Substance use disorder (SUD) is the continued use of one or more psychoactive substances, including alcohol, despite negative effects on health, functioning, and social relations. Problematic drug use has increased by 10% globally since 2013, and harmful use of alcohol is associated with 5.3% of all deaths. Direct effects of music therapy (MT) on problematic substance use are not known, but it may be helpful in alleviating associated psychological symptoms and decreasing substance craving. Objectives: To compare the effect of music therapy (MT) in addition to standard care versus standard care alone, or to standard care plus an active control intervention, on psychological symptoms, substance craving, motivation for treatment, and motivation to stay clean/sober. Search methods: We searched the following databases (from inception to 1 February 2021): the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Specialised Register; CENTRAL; MEDLINE (PubMed); eight other databases, and two trials registries. We handsearched reference lists of all retrieved studies and relevant systematic reviews. Selection criteria: We included randomised controlled trials comparing MT plus standard care to standard care alone, or MT plus standard care to active intervention plus standard care for people with SUD. Data collection and analysis: We used standard Cochrane methodology. Main results: We included 21 trials involving 1984 people. We found moderate-certainty evidence of a medium effect favouring MT plus standard care over standard care alone for substance craving (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.23 to -0.10; 3 studies, 254 participants), with significant subgroup differences indicating greater reduction in craving for MT intervention lasting one to three months; and small-to-medium effect favouring MT for motivation for treatment/change (SMD 0.41, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.61; 5 studies, 408 participants). We found no clear evidence of a beneficial effect on depression (SMD -0.33, 95% CI -0.72 to 0.07; 3 studies, 100 participants), or motivation to stay sober/clean (SMD 0.22, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.47; 3 studies, 269 participants), though effect sizes ranged from large favourable effect to no effect, and we are uncertain about the result. There was no evidence of beneficial effect on anxiety (mean difference (MD) -0.17, 95% CI -4.39 to 4.05; 1 study, 60 participants), though we are uncertain about the result. There was no meaningful effect for retention in treatment for participants receiving MT plus standard care as compared to standard care alone (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% 0.93 to 1.05; 6 studies, 199 participants). There was a moderate effect on motivation for treatment/change when comparing MT plus standard care to another active intervention plus standard care (SMD 0.46, 95% CI -0.00 to 0.93; 5 studies, 411 participants), and certainty in the result was moderate. We found no clear evidence of an effect of MT on motivation to stay sober/clean when compared to active intervention, though effect sizes ranged from large favourable effect to no effect, and we are uncertain about the result (MD 0.34, 95% CI -0.11 to 0.78; 3 studies, 258 participants). There was no clear evidence of effect on substance craving (SMD -0.04, 95% CI -0.56 to 0.48; 3 studies, 232 participants), depression (MD -1.49, 95% CI -4.98 to 2.00; 1 study, 110 participants), or substance use (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.29; 1 study, 140 participants) at one-month follow-up when comparing MT plus standard care to active intervention plus standard care. There were no data on adverse effects. Unclear risk of selection bias applied to most studies due to incomplete description of processes of randomisation and allocation concealment. All studies were at unclear risk of detection bias due to lack of blinding of outcome assessors for subjective outcomes (mostly self-report). We judged that bias arising from such lack of blinding would not differ between groups. Similarly, it is not possible to blind participants and providers to MT. We consider knowledge of receiving this type of therapy as part of the therapeutic effect itself, and thus all studies were at low risk of performance bias for subjective outcomes. We downgraded all outcomes one level for imprecision due to optimal information size not being met, and two levels for outcomes with very low sample size. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Results from this review suggest that MT as 'add on' treatment to standard care can lead to moderate reductions in substance craving and can increase motivation for treatment/change for people with SUDs receiving treatment in detoxification and short-term rehabilitation settings. Greater reduction in craving is associated with MT lasting longer than a single session. We have moderate-to-low confidence in our findings as the included studies were downgraded in certainty due to imprecision, and most included studies were conducted by the same researcher in the same detoxification unit, which considerably impacts the transferability of findings.
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This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: Main objective To compare the effect of music therapy (MT) in addition to standard care versus standard care alone, or to standard care plus an active control intervention, on psychological symptoms, substance craving, motivation for treatment, and motivation to stay clean/sober. Secondary objective To assess the impact of the number of MT sessions on study outcomes.
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This article examines the role of musically-triggered narrative engagement in translation performance. An experimental study was conducted to investigate the potential of music to induce narrative engagement (NE), together with findings which point out the influence of NE-relevant dimensions such as visualization and emotional involvement in translation. Participants translated two literary texts with opposing emotional content (happy and sad) in two different sound conditions (with and without music). Three hypotheses were formulated predicting a beneficial effect of music for narrative engagement as well as positive correlations between narrative engagement and translation quality and creativity. Results suggest an increase of visualization in the music condition and a correlation between visualization levels and accuracy scores. Retrospective questionnaires indicate a positive appraisal of the experience of translating with music at both the cognitive and emotional level, although further investigations is needed to validate the scale and confirm its reliability.
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Music therapists use guided affect regulation in the treatment of mood disorders. However, self-directed uses of music in affect regulation are not fully understood. Some uses of music may have negative effects on mental health, as can non-music regulation strategies, such as rumination. Psychological testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used explore music listening strategies in relation to mental health. Participants (n = 123) were assessed for depression, anxiety and Neuroticism, and uses of Music in Mood Regulation (MMR). Neural responses to music were measured in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in a subset of participants (n = 56). Discharge, using music to express negative emotions, related to increased anxiety and Neuroticism in all participants and particularly in males. Males high in Discharge showed decreased activity of mPFC during music listening compared with those using less Discharge. Females high in Diversion, using music to distract from negative emotions, showed more mPFC activity than females using less Diversion. These results suggest that the use of Discharge strategy can be associated with maladaptive patterns of emotional regulation, and may even have long-term negative effects on mental health. This finding has real-world applications in psychotherapy and particularly in clinical music therapy.
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Music is one of the most pleasant human experiences, even though it has no direct biological advantage. However little is known about individual differences in how people experience reward in music-related activities. The goal of the present study was to describe the main facets of music experience that could explain the variance observed in how people experience reward associated with music. To this end we developed the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ), which was administrated to three large samples. Our results showed that the musical reward experience can be decomposed into five reliable factors: Musical Seeking, Emotion Evocation, Mood Regulation, Social Reward, and Sensory-Motor. These factors were correlated with socio-demographic factors and measures of general sensitivity to reward and hedonic experience. We propose that the five-factor structure of musical reward experience might be very relevant in the study of psychological and neural bases of emotion and pleasure associated to music.
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Despite the paradox inherent in the idea that sad music could make people happier, research indicates that an improved mood is amongst the primary motivations that people give for listening to sad music. However, it is not clear whether listeners are always able to achieve such aims. This article reports a study in which 335 participants listened to a piece of self-selected sad music. Before and after-measures of mood were taken, and participants also completed psychometric scales of rumination, absorption and reflectiveness. It was found that both ruminators and non-ruminators had significant increases in depression after listening to self-selected sad music. Furthermore, ruminators did not systematically report that they expected to benefit from listening to sad music, contrary to the literature. Results support the hypothesis that listening to sad music is related to maladaptive mood regulation strategies in some listeners.
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A hedonic theory of music and sadness is proposed. Some listeners report that nominally sad music genuinely makes them feel sad. It is suggested that, for these listeners, sad affect is evoked through a combination of empathetic responses to sad acoustic features, learned associations, and cognitive rumination. Among those listeners who report sad feelings, some report an accompanying positive affect, whereas others report the experience to be solely negative. Levels of the hormone prolactin increase when sad – producing a consoling psychological effect suggestive of a homeostatic function. It is proposed that variations in prolactin levels might account for the variability in individual hedonic responses. Specifically, it is conjectured that high prolactin concentrations are associated with pleasurable music-induced sadness, whereas low prolactin concentrations are associated with unpleasant music-induced sadness. © 2011, European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. All rights reserved.
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Impaired emotion regulation contributes to the development and severity of substance use disorders (substance disorders). This review summarizes the literature on alterations in emotion regulation neural circuitry in substance disorders, particularly in relation to disorders of negative affect (without substance disorder), and it presents promising areas of future research. Emotion regulation paradigms during functional magnetic resonance imaging are conceptualized into four dimensions: affect intensity and reactivity, affective modulation, cognitive modulation, and behavioral control. The neural circuitry associated with impaired emotion regulation is compared in individuals with and without substance disorders, with a focus on amygdala, insula, and prefrontal cortex activation and their functional and structural connectivity. Hypoactivation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (rACC/vmPFC) is the most consistent finding across studies, dimensions, and clinical populations (individuals with and without substance disorders). The same pattern is evident for regions in the cognitive control network (anterior cingulate and dorsal and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices) during cognitive modulation and behavioral control. These congruent findings are possibly related to attenuated functional and/or structural connectivity between the amygdala and insula and between the rACC/vmPFC and cognitive control network. Although increased amygdala and insula activation is associated with impaired emotion regulation in individuals without substance disorders, it is not consistently observed in substance disorders. Emotion regulation disturbances in substance disorders may therefore stem from impairments in prefrontal functioning, rather than excessive reactivity to emotional stimuli. Treatments for emotion regulation in individuals without substance disorders that normalize prefrontal functioning may offer greater efficacy for substance disorders than treatments that dampen reactivity.
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Music is commonly associated with substance use yet little is known about the music experiences of adults with substance use disorders. In particular, there has been no detailed analysis of musical influences on emotions and cravings among clients in treatment and how these influences might occur. To explore these questions, surveys of music experiences were collected from 143 clients undergoing treatment (37 private hospital clients and 106 residential rehabilitation clients). Of the hospital sample, 70% listened to music for over an hour each day, typically while alone, and their preferred genres were pop and rock. Clients stated that music listening intensified the emotional experience of drug taking and vice versa. Residential rehabilitation clients reported that their preferred music was gloomier or heavier when using substances than when in recovery. Forty-three percent said that particular music increased their urge to use substances, and there were five common explanations, including: the song was associated with past experiences of substance use; the song evoked emotions related to substance use; and the song contained lyrics about substance use. Nevertheless, most respondents believed that music was important to their recovery. The findings are considered in terms of their clinical implications.