Effects of Acute Exercise on Craving and Cortical Hemodynamics under Drug-Cue Exposure in MA-dependent Individuals

Background: Methamphetamine (MA) dependent individuals who want to break free of their drug habit or guard against a relapse often find it hard to overcome cravings induced by drug-related cues they are bound to encounter. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of acute virtual reality (VR) enhanced physical exercise on cue-induced cravings in MA-dependent individuals.Methods: Thirty MA-dependent individuals performed a drug-cue reactivity task both before and after a 10 min VR-enhanced competitive cycling exercise. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was recorded during the preand post-exercise drug-cue reactivity tasks.Results: MA dependent individuals show higher hemodynamic responses in prefrontal cortex (PFC) to drug related cues than to neutral cues. After acute exercise, hemodynamic responses in PFC, including bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, were attenuated under the same drug-related cues exposure. Acute exercise also affected the functional connectivity between PFC and motor cortex in response to drug-related cues versus neutral cues.Conclusions: These results suggest that a single session of VR-enhanced competitive cycling exercise facilitates MA-dependent individuals' self-control over their cue-induced cravings by modulating cortical activations and brain functional networks.