The Neural Basis of Response Inhibition and Substance Abuse

This chapter focuses on inhibitory control, largely operationalised as response inhibition, and its contribution to substance abuse, and highlights results from two classic tasks of response inhibition: the stop-signal task, and the go/no-go task. It discusses the relationship between response inhibition and substance abuse disorders as studied with functional neuroimaging and event-related potentials, where response inhibition will be considered as a means to characterise the cognitive control deficits of substance-dependent individuals. As the neural circuitry of response inhibition is relatively well understood and yields reliable and sensitive behavioural measures of inhibitory ability, it has generated a significant number of studies focused on the role of response inhibition in addiction. Neuroimaging research has identified the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as a brain region critical for cognitive control. Inhibitory control has been repeatedly implicated in drug addiction and may be especially relevant for treatment success.