A pilot investigation of acute inhibitory control training in cocaine users

Abstract

Background Disrupted response inhibition and presence of drug-cue attentional bias in cocaine-using individuals have predicted poor treatment outcomes. Inhibitory control training could help improve treatment outcomes by strengthening cognitive control. This pilot study assessed the effects of acute inhibitory control training to drug- and non-drug-related cues on response inhibition performance and cocaine-cue attentional bias in cocaine-using individuals. Methods Participants who met criteria for a cocaine-use disorder underwent five sessions of inhibitory control training to either non-drug-related cues (i.e., rectangles) or cocaine cues (n=10/condition) in a single day. Response inhibition and attentional bias were assessed prior to and following training using the stop-signal task and visual-probe task with eye tracking, respectively. Results Training condition groups did not differ on demographics, inhibitory control training performance, response inhibition, or cocaine-cue attentional bias. Response inhibition performance improved as a function of inhibitory control training in both conditions. Cocaine-cue attentional bias was observed, but did not change as a function of inhibitory control training in either condition. Conclusions Response inhibition in cocaine-using individuals was augmented by acute inhibitory control training, which may improve treatment outcomes through better behavioral inhibition. Future studies should investigate longer-term implementation of inhibitory control training, as well as combining inhibitory control training with other treatment modalities.

Rejecting impulsivity as a psychological construct: A theoretical, empirical, and sociocultural argument.

“…For example, Rush and colleagues (2020) found that inhibitory control training by participants with cocaine use disorder improved stop-signal task performance but did not affect delay discounting performance. Similarly, Alcorn and colleagues (2017) found in a similar participant population that inhibitory control training improved stop-signal task performance but did not affect attentional bias for cocaine cues. Although more systematic examinations of far-transfer to the untrained domains of impulsivity would be beneficial, these results are consistent with a broader cognitive science literature for which meta-analyses on cognitive training have shown short-term improvements in near-transfer tasks but small or no effects in generalization of far-transfer to other cognitive skills in the short and long-term (e.g., inhibitory processes in attention short-term effects d = 0.32, long term effects d = 0.09; Melby-Lervåg & Hulme, 2013).…”

“…Inhibitory control training targets motor impulsivity by training participants to decrease prepotent responses to cues relevant to negative health behaviors (e.g., drugs, unhealthy foods). These inhibitory training procedures have resulted in improvements in the trained or similar tasks (i.e., near-transfer; improvements in response inhibition following inhibitory control training; Alcorn, Pike, Stoops, Lile, & Rush, 2017; Houben, Nederkoorn, Wiers, & Jansen, 2011; Rush, Strickland, Pike, Studts, & Stoops, 2020; Strickland, Hill, Stoops, & Rush, 2019). However, far-transfer involving improvements in other cognitive domains relevant to impulsivity appear poor.…”

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Initial Efficacy of Delivering Alcohol Use Cognitive Interventions via Crowdsourcing

“…However, negative or mixed outcomes have also been reported (Bowley et al, 2013, Smith et al, 2017, Wanmaker et al, 2018. Although fewer studies have addressed other substance use disorders, existing research indicates similar improvements in near-transfer performance (Alcorn et al, 2017, Bickel et al, 2011, but is varied with respect to changes in far-transfer performance or substance use (e.g., Adams et al, 2017, Rass et al, 2015, Schulte et al, 2018, for general meta-analysis on working memory effects see Melby-Lervag and Hulme, 2013).…”

Addiction: Brain and Cognitive Stimulation for Better Cognitive Control and Far Beyond

“…In contrast to some studies using formal training of working memory (e.g., [83]) to evaluate their direct impact on unhealthy behaviors (e.g., alcohol abuse), which can be positive in nonclinical samples [84], but not clinical population [85], modified versions of response inhibition tasks have served as training paradigms [79,[86][87][88][89][90].…”