Addictions often develop in a social context, although the influence of social factors did not receive much attention in the neuroscience of addiction. Recent animal studies suggest that peer presence can reduce cocaine intake, an influence potentially mediated, among others, by the subthalamic nucleus (STN). However, there is to date no neurobiological study investigating this mediation in humans. This study investigated the impact of social context and drug cues on brain correlates of inhibitory control in individuals with and without cocaine use disorder (CUD) using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Seventeen CUD participants and 17 healthy controls (HC) performed a novel fMRI “Social” Stop-Signal Task (SSST) in the presence or absence of an observer while being exposed to cocaine-related (vs. neutral) cues eliciting craving in drug users. The results showed that CUD participants, while slower at stopping with neutral cues, recovered control level stopping abilities with cocaine cues, while HC did not show any difference. During inhibition (Stop Correct vs Stop Incorrect), activity in the right STN, right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) varied according to the type of cue. Notably, the presence of an observer reversed this effect in most areas for CUD participants. These findings highlight the impact of social context and drug cues on inhibitory control in CUD and the mediation of these effects by the right STN and bilateral OFC, emphasizing the importance of considering the social context in addiction research. They also comfort the STN as a potential addiction treatment target.

成瘾往往是在社会背景下形成的，尽管社会因素的影响在成瘾神经科学中并没有受到太多关注。最近的动物研究表明，同伴的存在可以减少可卡因的摄入量，这种影响可能是由丘脑底核（STN）等因素介导的。然而，迄今为止还没有神经生物学研究调查人类的这种中介作用。本研究利用功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 调查了社会背景和药物线索对患有和不患有可卡因使用障碍 (CUD) 的个体的大脑抑制控制相关性的影响。 17 名 CUD 参与者和 17 名健康对照 (HC) 在有或没有观察者的情况下执行了一项新颖的功能磁共振成像“社交”停止信号任务 (SSST)，同时暴露于可卡因相关（相对于中性）线索，引起吸毒者的渴望。结果表明，CUD 参与者虽然在中性提示下停止的速度较慢，但​​在可卡因提示下恢复了控制水平的停止能力，而 HC 则没有表现出任何差异。在抑制期间（停止正确与停止不正确），右侧 STN、右额下回 (IFG) 和双侧眶额皮质 (OFC) 的活动根据提示类型而变化。值得注意的是，对于 CUD 参与者来说，观察员的存在扭转了大多数领域的这种影响。这些发现强调了社会背景和药物线索对 CUD 抑制控制的影响，以及右 STN 和双侧 OFC 对这些影响的调节，强调了成瘾研究中考虑社会背景的重要性。他们还安慰 STN 作为潜在的成瘾治疗目标。