@article{ref1,
title="Behavioral and neural sensitivity to uncertain threat in individuals with alcohol use disorder: associations with drinking behaviors and motives",
journal="Addiction biology",
year="2019",
author="Gorka, Stephanie M. and Kreutzer, Kayla A. and Petrey, Kelsey M. and Radoman, Milena and Phan, Kinh Luan",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="e12774-e12774",
abstract="A developing theory is that individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) display exaggerated reactivity to threats that are uncertain (U-threat), which facilitates excessive drinking as a means of avoidance-based coping. There is a promising initial behavioral evidence supporting this theory; however, the neural bases of reactivity to U-threat in individuals with AUD have not been examined. The extent to which biomarkers of U-threat reactivity map onto drinking behaviors and coping motives for alcohol use is also unknown. The current study therefore examined group differences in behavioral and neural reactivity to U-threat in adults with and without AUD. The study also tested whether behavior and brain responses to U-threat correlate with problematic drinking and coping motivated drinking. Volunteers (n = 65) with and without a history of AUD (38 AUD, 27 controls) were included and completed a well-validated threat-of-shock task to probe responses to U-threat and predictable threat (P-threat) while startle eyeblink potentiation was collected. Individuals also completed a newly designed, analogous version of the task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). <br><br>RESULTS indicated that individuals with AUD displayed greater startle magnitude during U-threat, but not P-threat, and greater right insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation during both forms of threat compared with controls. Startle magnitude and insula activation during U-threat positively correlated with self-reported problem drinking and coping motives for alcohol use. <br><br>FINDINGS demonstrate that individuals with AUD display exaggerated sensitivity to U-threat at the behavioral and neural level and that these multimethod biomarkers tap into negative reinforcement processes of alcohol abuse.<br><br>© 2019 Society for the Study of Addiction.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1355-6215",
doi="10.1111/adb.12774",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/adb.12774"
}