Reduced Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates in Recreational Cocaine Users: Evidence for Dopaminergic Hypoactivity

Chronic use of cocaine is associated with a reduced density of dopaminergic D2 receptors in the striatum, with negative consequences for cognitive control processes. Increasing evidence suggests that cognitive control is also affected in recreational cocaine consumers. This study aimed at linking these observations to dopaminergic malfunction by studying the spontaneous eyeblink rate (EBR), a marker of striatal dopaminergic functioning, in adult recreational users and a cocaine-free sample that was matched on age, race, gender, and personality traits. Correlation analyses show that EBR is significantly reduced in recreational users compared to cocaine-free controls, suggesting that cocaine use induces hypoactivity in the subcortical dopamine system.

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  PLoS ONE

• Publication date

  2008-10-22

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0003461PMID 18941515PMCID 2565797
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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