Appetitive nature of drug cues confirmed with physiological measures in a model using pictures of smoking

Rationale: In smokers, pictures of smoking that increase desire for a cigar ette are described as pleasant rather than unpleasant. This suggests that t hese smoking cues may be appetitive and not withdrawal-like or aversive as held by traditional theories of drug cue formation. Objective: Cues for smo king were examined using physiological measures of motivational valence. Me thods. Non-deprived smokers, deprived smokers and deprived smokers who expe cted to smoke (n=54) viewed a computer screen presenting experimental and c ontrol scenes (experiment 1). The acoustic startle reaction and activity of the corrugator and the zygomatic facial muscles were then measured after o nset of smoking cues and standardized pleasant, neutral or unpleasant contr ol scenes. Individuals who never smoked (n=18) were also used to test for c ue effects on startle (experiment 2). Results: No evidence was found that s moking cues were aversive in smokers. The smoking cues affected the startle responses and corrugator activity in a way similar to that of pleasant con trol material but significantly different from that of unpleasant material; the cue effects on zygomatic activity was most similar to that of neutral material. The general pattern of effects was not influenced by overnight sm oke deprivation, expectancy to smoke or smoke repletion, but it was differe nt in never smokers where the smoking scenes were found to be similar to un pleasant control scenes. Conclusions: Non-subjective measures of motivation al valence further suggest that drug cues are conditioned stimuli having ap petitive effects. Startle response modulated by drug cues may be useful for probing motivational processes underlying dependence in the human.