μ-opioid receptor system mediates reward processing in humans

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 1500 - 7
• Main Authors: Nummenmaa, Lauri, Saanijoki, Tiina, Tuominen, Lauri, Hirvonen, Jussi, Tuulari, Jetro J., Nuutila, Pirjo, Kalliokoski, Kari
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.04.2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 59/36; 59/78; 631/378/1488; 631/378/1662; 631/378/1788; Adult; Amygdala; Amygdala - anatomy & histology; Amygdala - diagnostic imaging; Amygdala - physiology; Analgesics, Opioid - pharmacokinetics; Availability; Body weight gain; Brain Mapping; Fentanyl - analogs & derivatives; Fentanyl - pharmacokinetics; Food; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Gene Expression; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hypothalamus; Hypothalamus - anatomy & histology; Hypothalamus - diagnostic imaging; Hypothalamus - physiology; Ligands; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; multidisciplinary; Narcotics; Neostriatum; Obesity; Opioid receptors; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Photography; Pictures; Positron emission; Positron emission tomography; Receptors, Opioid, mu - genetics; Receptors, Opioid, mu - metabolism; Reinforcement; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tomography; Ventral Striatum - anatomy & histology; Ventral Striatum - diagnostic imaging; Ventral Striatum - physiology

The endogenous μ-opioid receptor (MOR) system regulates motivational and hedonic processing. We tested directly whether individual differences in MOR are associated with neural reward responses to food pictures in humans. We scanned 33 non-obese individuals with positron emission tomography (PET) us...