id_924. ALTERED APPETITIVE CONDITIONING AND EXTINCTION IN COMPULSIVE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR: A NEUROIMAGING STUDY OF REWARD SYSTEM CONNECTIVITY
Jakub Wojciechowski1,,2, Małgorzata Draps3, Xin Di2, Bharat Biswal2, Mateusz Gola3,,4
1 Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland
2 New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States
3 Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
4 University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
INTRODUCTION: Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD), included in the ICD-11, remains poorly understood in terms of its neural mechanisms. The Incentive Sensitization Theory of Addiction suggests that maladaptive attentional and motivational processes toward reward-related cues, coupled with impaired extinction, drive addictive behaviors through alterations in the brain’s reward system.
AIM(S): This study aimed to investigate functional connectivity (FC) in the reward system during conditioning and extinction as well as intrinsic FC during resting state in individuals with CSB.
METHOD(S): Sixty-six right-handed heterosexual men (33 with CSB, 33 healthy controls) participated in fMRI scans while performing a conditioning and extinction tasks involving erotic, monetary, or neutral cues, as well as outside of task.
RESULTS: Results showed that both groups successfully acquired conditioned responses, but CSB participants exhibited stronger and more persistent cue preferences, particularly for erotic cues. Self-report ratings revealed heightened positive valence and arousal for erotic rewards in CSB participants, especially after conditioning. During extinction, CSB participants showed more robust extinction effects compared to controls for both erotic and monetary rewards. FC analyses revealed stronger ventral striatum–orbitofrontal cortex coupling for erotic cues during conditioning in CSB. During extinction, the coupling between ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex was weaker in CSB, suggesting disrupted extinction. Interestingly, no differences were found in resting-state FC between groups.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that CSB involves enhanced conditioning, cue-reactivity, and impaired extinction learning, similar to other addictive behaviors. However, the lack of resting-state differences implies that the neurobiological mechanisms of CSB may differ from those seen in substance use disorders or involve more subtle, context-dependent neuroadaptations.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT: This study was supported by an Polish National Science Centre grant 2016/21/N/HS6/02635 and Fulbright Junior Research Award