Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The withdrawal stage of addiction can increase drug craving and drug reinstatement following cessation from repeated drug use. Neuroscientific research has consistentlyfound activation of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) during this withdrawal stage. However, connectivity strength between the amygdala and BNSTcoincides with concurrent formation of the white matter connections between these two structures, known as the stria terminalis and the amygdalofugal pathway. Althoughresearch has determined that the integrity of the stria terminalis is altered in drug addiction, no research has assessed the impact of withdrawal on the integrity of theseconnections. Using diffusion tensor imaging with forty community members with a smoking addiction to measure the white matter integrity of the stria terminalis and theamygdalofugal pathway, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess activation of the amygdala and BNST, I hypothesize that the withdrawal stage willincrease the integrity of the stria terminalis and amygdalofugal pathway. Furthermore, I hypothesize that the functional connectivity between the amygdala and BNST will increaseas the integrity of the white matter connections increases. The neural plasticity in these white matter connections could be another potential mechanism through which the drugwithdrawal stage arises, and could provide a novel, uninvestigated potential reasoning of how drug craving arises post-withdrawal.