Frontoparietal Synchronization to Modulate Drug Craving in Opioid Use Disorder

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is among the costliest and deadliest substance use disorders (SUDs) in the US and world-wide. Opioids were involved in 42,249 deaths in the US in 2016, which were more than deaths due to road accidents and gun violence combined. Opioid overdose deaths were five times higher in 2016 than 1999. Meanwhile, the treatment options for OUD are limited and long-term efficacy is poor. There is a hope that recent advances in understanding of the cognitive neuroscience underlying addictive behavior, like drug craving and its regulatory processes, can bring new opportunities for more effective and personalized treatment options for OUD. Drug craving is the signature aspect of OUD as well as other SUDs which has been associated with continued drug use and relapse. In previous studies, the investigators have shown significant response to drug related cues in both frontoparietal and limbic areas including amygdala and ventral striatum. In a recent pilot study, the investigators showed significant lower connectivity between amygdala and frontoparietal areas, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and inferior parietal cortex (IPC), major nodes of the executive control network (ECN), in patients with OUD compared with healthy controls. The central role of the ECN is to perform top down regulation of subcortical limbic areas during self-control, emotion-regulation, and response- inhibition tasks. These processes are well known to be affected in different psychopathologies including SUDs. There is a growing body of evidence that external frontoparietal synchronization (FPS) with transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can potentially modulate connectivity within ECN and between ECN and limbic areas. This may improve some aspects of executive function and top down regulation. tACS is a low-cost and scalable non-invasive brain stimulation technology without any serious side effects. The procedure involves the transcranial delivery of low l