{
  "abstract": "E-cigarette use among young adults has grown rapidly, raising concerns about nicotine dependence and motivating a better understanding of the neurobiology of vaping. We used a cue-induced craving fMRI paradigm to develop and evaluate a brain signature of vaping cue-elicited craving, and to compare it with smoking– and food-craving signatures developed using the same analytic pipeline. Using LASSO–PCR with leave-one-subject-out cross-validation, we identified a distributed pattern of brain activity that reliably predicted normative vaping craving from an independent sample (hereafter, normative craving). The vaping-craving signature was also substantially distinct from smoking– and food-craving signatures, both spatially and functionally, and showed specificity relative to previously established craving signatures. Moreover, greater signature expression was associated with greater e-cigarette dependence severity and showed a positive, though modest, prospective association with daily puff counts over four weeks, demonstrating the signature’s behavioral and clinical relevance. Together, these findings establish a cross-validated brain signature of vaping cue-elicited craving, demonstrate its differentiation from other craving-related neural patterns, and link its expression to e-cigarette dependence and real-world use. More broadly, they support the potential of this framework for developing reproducible neural markers of craving. Significant statement Craving is a basic human experience, but also a powerful engine for addiction. Although vaping has become a common form of nicotine use, we still know little about vaping-specific craving. Craving is currently measured mostly through self-report, which is prone to bias. Using neuroimaging and machine learning, we identified a brain signature that tracks e-cigarette dependence and predicts cue-related craving tendencies. This signature captures vaping-specific craving above and beyond a previously established domain-general signature of craving, and is distinct from brain-based signatures of food and cigarette craving. These findings highlight a distinct neural representation for vaping craving and provide a new and generalizable brain-based measure for predicting vaping dependence.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Shangcheng Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hongbo Yu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Leonie Koban"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yidi Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qiyao Peng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tianlai Ye"
    },
    {
      "name": "Michael Amlung"
    },
    {
      "name": "James Mackillop"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lawrence H Sweet"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jiaying Liu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cakcd56vkm50p.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.15.759290",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759290v1.full",
  "id": "cakcd56vkm50p",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05844254v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "0.scco"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sdv"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "1.sdv.neu"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2737|Smoking Behavior and Cessation"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223093761",
  "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05844254/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cakcd56vkm50p.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:03Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05844254",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05844254v1"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:28:56Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.15.759290",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759290v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A brain signature of vaping cue-elicited craving",
  "title_text": "A brain signature of vaping cue-elicited craving",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T12:20:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cakcd56vkm50p",
  "venue": "HAL",
  "versions": []
}