Abstract
RationaleAlcohol intoxication and alcohol cue exposure impair ‘reactive’ inhibitory control and increase motivation to drink. However, inhibitory control is a multi-component process that also comprises signal detection and proactive control. It is unknown whether intoxication and cue exposure selectively influence these subprocesses in heavy drinkers.ObjectivesIn two pre-registered studies, we investigated whether exposure to alcohol-related cues (study 1) and alcohol priming (study 2) impair each of these subprocesses of inhibitory control and increase motivation to drink.MethodsIn study 1, 64 heavy drinkers completed a modified stop-signal task in an alcohol context (with embedded alcohol cues) and a neutral context (with embedded neutral cues) followed by a subjective measure of craving and a bogus taste test to measure ad libitum alcohol consumption. In study 2, 36 heavy drinkers consumed an alcoholic beverage (0.6 g/kg body weight), an alcohol-placebo beverage, and water on a within-subjects basis, followed by the modified stop-signal task and a bogus taste test.ResultsIn study 1, alcohol cue exposure did not impair inhibitory control subprocesses. Reactive control was unexpectedly better following alcohol cue exposure (compared to neutral cue exposure). However, craving and ad libitum consumption increased as expected. In study 2, reactive control was significantly impaired following the alcohol and control primes, relative to the placebo, but there was no effect on proactive slowing or signal detection. As expected, intoxication increased motivation to drink and ad libitum consumption (compared to placebo and control).ConclusionsAlcohol intoxication and cue exposure increase motivation to drink in the absence of impairments in subcomponents of inhibitory control.
Highlights
Inhibitory control is defined as theability to suppress, postpone or alter a response that is no longer appropriate (Logan et al 1984) and can be measured using the stop signal and go/ no-go computerised tasks
The current studies aimed to investigate the effect of alcohol cue exposure and alcohol intoxication on proactive slowing, reactive control, signal detection and subsequent craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption
In study 1, there were no impairments of proactive slowing or signal detection following alcohol cue exposure, and contrary to hypotheses, reactive control was unexpectedly faster following exposure to alcohol cues compared to neutral cues
Summary
Inhibitory control is defined as the (in)ability to suppress, postpone or alter a response that is no longer appropriate (Logan et al 1984) and can be measured using the stop signal and go/ no-go computerised tasks. The current studies aimed to directly investigate the effect of alcohol cue exposure (study 1) and alcohol intoxication (study 2) on the different components of inhibitory control (namely reactive stopping, signal detection and proactive control), and subsequent craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption We included these alcohol-seeking measures due to substantial evidence demonstrating that both alcohol-related cues (Fatseas et al 2015; MacKillop and Lisman 2007) and alcohol intoxication (Christiansen et al 2012; De Wit and Chutuape 1993) increase motivation to consume subsequent alcohol. We hypothesised that (iv) the effects of alcohol cue exposure on ad libitum alcohol consumption would be partially mediated by changes in the different components of control
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