Scientists may have discovered a more accurate tool for measuring cravings. Employing a machine learning algorithm, an international team of scientists has identified a brain signature that, in their experiments, distinguished people with substance abuse disorders from people without them with a high degree of accuracy. The finding, published December 2022 in Nature Neuroscience, could one day be used to help clinicians treat people with addictions by adding less subjective context to their reported cravings.

“It’s an interesting and well-done analysis,” says John Gabrieli, a neuroscientist at MIT who wasn’t involved in the research. “We want to somehow use our knowledge about the brain to help people do better. [This study] opened up a whole area to do [that].”

Read more: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/newly-identified-neural-signature-of-drug-craving-could-predict-drug-use-70885