Background Attentional bias modification (ABM) techniques for reducing problematic alcohol consumption hold promise as highly-accessible and cost-effective treatment approaches. A growing body of literature has examined ABM as a potentially efficacious intervention for reducing drinking and drinking-related cognitions in alcohol-dependent individuals as well as those at-risk of developing problem drinking habits. Methods The present study tested the effectiveness of a single session of visual probe-based ABM training in a cohort of 60 non-treatment-seeking young adult drinkers, with a focus on examining mechanisms underlying training efficacy. Participants were randomly assigned to a single session of active ABM training or a sham training condition in a laboratory setting. Measures of implicit drinking-related cognitions (alcohol Stroop and an Implicit Association Test) and attentional bias (alcohol visual probe) were administered, and subjective alcohol craving was reported in response to in-vivo alcohol cues. Results Results showed that active ABM training, relative to sham, resulted in significant differences in measures of implicit alcohol-related cognition, alcohol-related attentional bias, and self-reports of alcohol craving. Mediation analysis showed that reductions in craving were fully mediated by ABM-related reductions in alcohol-Stroop interference scores, suggesting a previously undocumented relationship between the two measures. Conclusion Results document the efficacy of brief ABM to reduce both implicit and explicit processes related to drinking, and highlight the potential intervention-relevance of alcohol-related implicit cognitions in social drinkers.

Despite a growing literature supporting the salutary effects of mindfulness meditation on emotion regulation, the underlying mechanisms linking neural and subjective changes occurring during the actual practice of meditation with emotion regulatory effects observed after meditation remains virtually unexplored. the current study sought to address this gap in knowledge by testing the hypothesis that adoption of internally-directed focused attention, indexed by increased alpha and theta spectral power, during brief open monitoring (oM) mindfulness meditation predicts reduced emotional reactivity, as measured by the late positive potential (Lpp). Results revealed that the OM meditation did not produce demonstrable differences in alpha and theta power but did increase self-reported sleepiness relative to controls. follow-up analyses showed that sleepiness uniquely moderated the effect of meditation on the LPP, such that less sleepiness during meditation, but not the control audio, corresponded to smaller Lpps to negative images. change in theta, but not alpha power, between meditation and rest was positively correlated with the Lpp even after controlling for sleepiness. Although the primary hypothesis was unsupported, the findings demonstrate that phenomenological and neural changes occurring during oM meditation may modulate its subsequent "off-the-cushion" effects on emotional reactivity. Originating from a 2,500-year old Buddhist contemplative tradition, mindfulness has received increased interest from people around the world. Although definitions of mindfulness vary across time and context 1 , one of the most cited contemporary definitions of mindfulness refers to the adoption of a nonelaborative, nonjudgmental awareness to present-moment experience 2,3. Driving its rising popularity, a rapidly growing body of research has shown that adoption and training of mindfulness, and possessing higher dispositional levels of mindfulness, are related to a wide array of benefits 2-5. A frequently cited benefit of mindfulness involves its salutary effects on emotion regulation 6,7 , a core selfregulatory ability involving modulation of the generation, experience, and expression of emotion 8. Despite lay and scientific consensus that mindfulness promotes healthy emotion regulation, little is known about how mindfulness confers its emotion regulatory effects. Research into this question is complicated by three factors. First, emotion regulation is conceptualized as a complex dynamic process that unfolds over time 9,10. Consequently, mechanistic investigations of mindfulness-based emotion regulation may strongly benefit from employing methodologies with temporal sensitivity. Second, mindfulness is a multi-faceted construct differentiable as a state, trait, and mind-body training modality 11,12. Moreover, mindfulness as mind-body training is itself highly varied, ranging from traditional sitting meditations to a panoply of didactic exercises and integrative interventions 13,14. This construct heterogeneity complicates operationa...

December CITATIONLouis CC, Webster CT, Gloe LM and Moser JS ( ) Hair me out: Highlighting systematic exclusion in psychophysiological methods and recommendations to increase inclusion.

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