Conflict monitoring and emotional processing in 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine users - A comparative neurophysiological study.
NeuroImage. Clinical January 1, 2024 Antje Opitz, Josua Zimmermann, David M Cole et al. 2 citations
Chronic users of methamphetamine and MDMA show similar deficits in conflict control and emotional processing, rather than substance-specific differences. In an emotional face-word Stroop task with anger and happy faces, both user groups exhibited smaller behavioral effects of cognitive-emotional conflict and selective impairments in processing anger, compared to amphetamine-naïve controls. These deficits were accompanied by stronger P3 event-related potential modulations, indicating altered stimulus-response mapping and decision-making. The findings suggest that chronic use of substituted amphetamines may affect noradrenergic systems, which could underlie the observed similarities. Understanding noradrenaline's role in these processes is an important direction for future research.