Alcohol-related Memory Research Articles

Environmental context effects on alcohol cognitions and immediate alcohol consumption

The present experimental study sought to demonstrate the effects of environmental context on accessibility of alcohol-related cognitions and immediate alcohol consumption. Fifty-six males were randomly assigned and exposed to either a simulated bar (alcohol contextual prime) or a neutral laboratory (neutral prime). Memory accessibility was measured using implicit memory association measures and immediate drinking behavior was measured unobtrusively using a taste-rating task. Contextually primed participants reported significantly more alcohol-related memory associations to ambiguous stimuli and exhibited significantly greater alcohol consumption than controls. These results strengthen support for the influence of environmental context on retrieval of alcohol cognitions in memory and on drinking behavior. Our findings complement theoretical assertions of the critical role of alcohol cognitions in directly influencing alcohol consumption.

Relationships Between Alcohol-Related Memory Association and Changes in Mood: Systematic Differences Between High- and Low-Risk Drinkers

Heavy alcohol use is common in undergraduates and is associated with health-risk behaviors, negative consequences, and increased risk for future alcohol dependence. Alcohol-related memory associations (AMAs) and mood changes are independently related to student drinking, but more research on how these variables interact is needed. To examine (i) how AMAs predict drinking behavior after accounting for depression, and (ii) how changes in negative and positive mood predict AMAs among low- and high-risk drinkers. Positive and negative moods were manipulated using a musical mood induction procedure immediately prior to completion of memory association measures. A bootstrapped structural equation model was tested, permitting a sampling distribution free of the requirement of normality. Negative mood changes predicted AMAs in high-risk drinkers but not in low-risk drinkers, and the opposite was found for positive mood changes. The negative mood-AMA association appeared related to risky drinking, and these subtle implicit cognitive processes may warrant a special focus in intervention programs for high-risk drinkers.

P.2.28 β-adrenoceptor mediated inhibition of long-term alcohol-related memory reconsolidation

P.2.28 β-adrenoceptor mediated inhibition of long-term alcohol-related memory reconsolidation

The Association of Alcohol‐Induced Blackouts and Grayouts to Blood Alcohol Concentrations

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the association between measured blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and the presence and degree of amnesia (no amnesia, grayout, or blackout) in actively drinking subjects. A secondary aim was to determine potential factors other than BAC that contribute to the alcohol-induced memory loss. An interview questionnaire was administered to subjects regarding a recent alcohol associated arrest with a documented BAC greater than 0.08 g/dL for either public intoxication, driving under the influence, or under age drinking was administered. Demographic variables collected included drinking history, family history of alcoholism, presence of previous alcohol-related memory loss during a drinking episode, and drinking behavior during the episode. Memory of the drinking episode was evaluated to determine if either an alcohol-induced grayout (partial anterograde amnesia) or blackout (complete anterograde amnesia) occurred. Differences in (1) mean total number of drinks ingested before arrest, (2) gulping of drinks, and (3) BAC at arrest were found for those having blackouts compared with no amnesia; while differences in drinking more than planned were found between the no amnesia and grayout groups. A strong linear relationship between BAC and predicted probability of memory loss, particularly for blackouts was obvious. This finding clinically concludes that subjects with BAC of 310 g/dL or greater have a 0.50 or greater probability of having an alcoholic blackout.

Alcohol-related motivational tendencies in hazardous drinkers: assessing implicit response tendencies using the modified-IAT

This study examined the utility of an implicit measure of cognitive associations, the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), to assess alcohol-related approach dispositions. Forty-seven hazardous drinkers completed a modified IAT procedure that assessed the relation between alcohol and behavioral categories (i.e., approach and avoid). Participants completed a series of individual difference measures before an alcohol cue exposure task in which they anticipated alcohol consumption. Results indicate that the modified IAT is associated with binge drinking episodes, perceived difficulty controlling alcohol use, and appetitive responses to alcohol cues. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential value of this measure to assess alcohol-related memory associations among those whose alcohol use puts them at risk for harm.

Anxiety and explicit alcohol-related memory in problem drinkers

Anxiety is associated with increased craving following in vivo cue exposure in alcoholics. Theoretical accounts [Psychol. Rev. 97 (1990) 147.] have proposed that conscious, deliberate cognitive processes underlie increased craving in drinkers who are trying to abstain. The present study tested the hypothesis that anxiety is associated with biases in explicit (i.e., conscious, deliberate) memory that promote recall of alcohol-related concepts in response to negative affective cues. Fifty-two (seven females) outpatient problem drinkers performed a cued recall task that assessed memory for alcohol-related (ALC), negative affective (NEG), and neutral (NEU) target concepts that had been paired with NEG, ALC, and NEU cues during an incidental study phase. Higher anxiety was associated with increased recall of ALC targets paired with NEG cues. State and trait anxiety were intercorrelated, with higher levels coinciding with a higher frequency of drinking in negative mood states. These findings demonstrate a correspondence between anxiety and alcohol-related memory, and suggest that explicit memory biases may contribute to increased subjective responses (e.g., craving, expectancies) to alcohol stimuli in anxious problem drinkers.

Positive alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior: the influence of expectancy strength and memory accessibility.

College student drinkers (N = 314) participated in a health survey in which they (a) completed an alcohol-related memory association task (expectancy accessibility measure), (b) rated their positive expectancies about alcohol use (expectancy strength measure), and (c) reported their level of alcohol involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both expectancy accessibility and expectancy strength predicted frequency of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Moreover, moderational analyses showed that the association between expectancy strength and frequency of alcohol use was greater for those who generated more alcohol responses on the expectancy association task. These findings suggest that the outcome association measure and Likert scale ratings of expectancies may assess distinct properties of expectancy representations, which may have independent and interactive effects on different aspects of drinking behavior.

Acute prenatal experience with alcohol in the amniotic fluid: Interactions with aversive and appetitive alcohol orosensory learning in the rat pup

Prenatal alcohol acute contamination of the amniotic fluid and different postnatal manipulations with this drug alter subsequent responsiveness to EtOH's chemosensory cues. In this study, the interaction between prenatal and postnatal alcohol-related experiences was examined. Alcohol administered in the amniotic fluid during gestational Day 21 potentiated subsequent alcohol-odor conditioned preferences resulting from postnatal pairings between the odor and sucrose intraoral infusions. No interaction was attained when examining the impact of the in utero experience with postnatal aversive conditioning defined by alcohol odor-citric acid pairings (Exps. 1a & 1b). In Exp. 2, infantile alcohol aversions derived from a state of acute ethanol intoxication were inhibited by prior alcohol experience in utero. Examination of alcohol levels in fetal trunk blood and the amniotic fluid suggests that the antenatal experience is related to the chemosensory perception of the drug rather than its intoxicating properties (Exp. 3). These results strongly suggest that the alcohol-related memory generated proximal to birth can modulate subsequent learning with the drug.

Association between Low Plasma Tryptophan and Blackouts in Male Alcoholic Patients

Alcohol has been observed to alter various aspects of memory function. Some of the most extreme forms of memory impairment experienced by alcoholics are blackouts. There are at present very few data on the biological mechanisms underlying alcohol-related memory impairment. A variety of mechanisms including the cholinergic and catecholaminergic systems have been implicated in learning and memory. More recently, however, the importance of the serotonergic system in memory function has been demonstrated. We investigated whether patients with a history of blackouts had lower plasma levels of the serotonin precursor tryptophan than patients without such a history. Tryptophan values were significantly lower in patients who had experienced blackouts than in patients who had not. No significant differences between the two group of patients were observed for other amino acids sharing with tryptophan the same transport carrier into the brain. Drinking history variables did not differentiate among the two patient groups. Our data suggest that a decrease in plasma tryptophan (and concomitant lowered brain serotonin) could increase the vulnerability of certain individuals to manifestations of various aspects of memory impairment including one of its most extreme forms, the blackout.

Alcohol-related memory and operant learning deficits: Current status and implications for alcohol research.

Alcohol-related memory and operant learning deficits: Current status and implications for alcohol research.