P31. Aberrant Estimation of Controllability and its Neural Underpinnings in Nicotine-Dependent Human Smokers

Humans live in complex environments that may or may not be controllable. As such, the ability to accurately estimate the level of controllability of the environment is crucial for survival. Previously, we found that healthy volunteers engage the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to calculate the downstream effects of current choices – a mechanisms terms forward thinking – to exploit the controllability of their environment. However, it is still not fully understood how the breakdown of this neurocomputational mechanism might lead to maladaptive behaviors such as observed in individuals with substance use disorder.