Citation

Adams S, Ataya AF, Attwood AS, Munafò MR. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013; 127(1-3): 137-142.

Affiliation

School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.06.025

PMID

22841455

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We investigated (1) the effects of acute alcohol on inhibition of alcohol-related versus neutral cues, (2) the effects of drinking status on inhibition of alcohol-related versus neutral cues, and (3) the similarity of any effects of alcohol or drinking status across two different cue types (lexical versus pictorial). METHODS: Participants received 0.0g/kg, 0.4g/kg or 0.6g/kg of alcohol in a between-subjects design. Healthy, heavy and light social alcohol users (n=96) completed both lexical and pictorial cue versions of an alcohol-shifting task. Participants were instructed to respond to target stimuli by pressing the spacebar, but to ignore distracter stimuli. Errors towards distracter stimuli were analysed using a series of mixed-model ANOVAs, with between-subjects factors of challenge and drinking status and within-subjects factors of distracter type (alcohol, neutral) and block (shift, non-shift). RESULTS: Lexical commission error data indicated a main effect of distracter (F [1,90]=43.25, p<0.001, η(2)=0.33), which was qualified by a marginal interaction with challenge condition (F [2,90]=2.77, p=0.068, η(2)=0.06). Following an acute high dose of alcohol participants made more errors towards alcohol distracters. Pictorial commission error data indicated a significant main effect of distracter (F [1,90]=67.40, p<0.001, η(2)=0.43), such that all participants made more errors towards neutral image distracters versus alcohol distracter images. CONCLUSIONS: Our results reveal acute alcohol's impairment of inhibitory control may be enhanced when a response towards alcohol-related lexical stimuli is required to be withheld.

Language: en