3.2.3 Within CU group analyses between cocaine cue induced activation of the regions of interest and cocaine use characteristics
Within the CU group, cocaine cue reactivity was unrelated to years of regular use, onset age of regular use, cocaine use per month in grams and cocaine use severity. However, the relationship between cocaine use severity (DUDIT score) and cocaine cue reactivity in the DS (p = .029, η2 = .10) and amygdala (p = .024, η2 = 0.11) was significantly moderated by sex. Follow up regression analyses with cocaine cue reactivity (i.e., reactivity to cocaine cues > neutral cues) in the amygdala and DS as dependent variables, DUDIT as predictor, and FD as covariate, demonstrated that cocaine use severity was positively associated with cocaine cue reactivity in the DS for female CUs (B = .33, p = .09), but negatively in male CUs (B = -.07, p = .73) (see Fig. 2C). Moreover, cocaine use severity was positively related to cocaine cue reactivity in the amygdala in female CUs (B = .31, p = .12), but negatively related in male CUs (B = -.27, p = .15) (see Fig. 2D).