Alcohol-Induced Changes in Conflict Monitoring and Error Detection as Predictors of Alcohol Use in Late Adolescence

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of substance use and related problems. Understanding how exposure to drugs influences the adolescent brain could reveal mechanisms underlying risk for addiction later in life. In the current study, 87 adolescents (16-20-year olds; the local legal drinking age was16, allowing the inclusion of younger subjects than usually possible) underwent EEG measurements during a Go/No-Go task with and without alcohol cues; after placebo and a low dose of alcohol (0.45 g/kg). Conflict monitoring and error detection processes were investigated with the N2 and the error-related negativity (ERN) ERP components. Participants were followed-up after 6 months to assess changes in alcohol use. The NoGo-N2 was larger for alcohol cues and acute alcohol decreased the amplitude of the NoGo-N2 for alcohol cues. ERN amplitude was blunted for alcohol cues. Acute alcohol decreased the amplitude of the ERN, specifically for control cues. Furthermore, the differences in ERN for alcohol cues between the placebo and alcohol conditions predicted alcohol use 6 months later: subjects who showed stronger blunting of the ERN after acute alcohol were more likely to return to more moderate drinking patterns. These results suggest that cues signalling reward opportunities might activate a go-response mode and larger N2 (detection of increased conflict) for these cues might be necessary for inhibition. The ERN results suggest a deficiency in the monitoring system for alcohol cues. Finally, a lack of alcohol-induced deterioration of error monitoring for cues with high salience might be a vulnerability factor for alcohol abuse in adolescents.

Acute alcohol does not impair attentional inhibition as measured with Stroop interference scores but impairs Stroop performance

“…The current study did not directly compare performance on the CST to the SST and the Go/NoGo task. However, our results fit well with a rich literature suggesting that acute alcohol exposure spares attentional inhibition, while response inhibition is impaired (de Wit et al 2000;Marczinski et al 2005;Loeber and Duka 2009;Marinkovic et al 2012;Gan et al 2014;Korucuoglu et al 2015;Stock et al 2016). Such a selective effect of acute alcohol on behavior was observed when response and attentional inhibition were examined in the same sample (Bartholow et al 2018).…”

Performance on emotional tasks engaging cognitive control depends on emotional intelligence abilities: an ERP study

“… 31 or Mäki-Marttunen 33 have shown a lower N2 amplitude responding to both go and no-go trials in patients with mild brain damage affecting cognitive control. These differences at brain level are also supported by behavioural studies showing that poorer performance on no-go trials is often accompanied by poor performance on go trials (for example in gamblers 35 , smokers 36 , 37 , adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 38 , or adolescents facing alcohol cues 39 ). The N2 component on go trials has usually been associated with allocation of resources to the detection and categorization of the target stimulus, and its evaluation and comparison in working memory 30 , 31 , 34 .…”

Acute effects of cocaine and cannabis on response inhibition in humans: an ERP investigation

“…The absence of an effect on the N2 after cocaine and cannabis suggests that neither pre-motor response inhibition processes, nor conflict monitoring, is altered by the drug. Interestingly, earlier acute administration studies with alcohol and cannabinoids also showed that the N2 amplitude (when measured in a neutral task condition) was unaffected (Theunissen et al 2012;Korucuoglu, Gladwin & Wiers 2014;Stock et al 2014). This suggests that across several classes of drugs of abuse, effects on response inhibition might be selective to a later, evaluative stage of response inhibition, while leaving pre-motor inhibition/conflict processing intact.…”