Alcohol-related and negatively valenced cues increase motor and oculomotor disinhibition in social drinkers.

Abstract

Our aim in the present study was to investigate the psychological mechanisms that underlie the disinhibiting effects of alcohol cues in social drinkers by contrasting motor and oculomotor inhibition after exposure to alcohol-related, emotional, and neutral pictures. We conducted 2 studies in which social drinkers completed modified stop-signal (laboratory) and antisaccade (online) tasks in which positive, negative, alcohol-related, and neutral pictures were embedded. We measured cue-specific disinhibition in each task, and investigated whether sex and drinking status moderated the effects of pictures on disinhibition. Across both studies, comparable increases in disinhibition were observed in response to both alcohol and negatively valenced pictures, relative to both positive and neutral pictures. These differences in disinhibition could not be explained by differences between picture sets in arousal or valence ratings. There was no clear evidence of moderation by sex or drinking status. Secondary analyses demonstrated that alcohol-specific disinhibition was not reliably associated with individual differences in alcohol consumption or craving. These results suggest that the disinhibiting properties of alcohol-related cues cannot be attributed solely to their valence or arousing properties, and that alcohol cues may have unique disinhibiting properties.

The influence of groups and alcohol consumption on individual risk-taking

“…Although research suggests that individuals will be more disinhibited when exposed to alcohol-related cues (Jones & Field, 2015;Weafer & Fillmore, 2015), the current study's failure to find an influence of drinking context on risk-taking, may demonstrate the significance of the social group itself. In other words, in non-alcohol-related environments, the presence of others may still heighten risktaking behaviour (c.f., Erskine-Shaw et al, 2017; E. K. Reynolds et al, 2013) to a level comparable to the effects of alcohol-related cues in drinking environments.…”

Impaired subjective self-control in alcohol use: An ecological momentary assessment study

“…D. Remmerswaal, et al Drug and Alcohol Dependence 204 (2019) 107479 2013). Further research is needed to investigate how self-control relates to other constructs in the natural environment such as alcohol-related cues (Jones and Field, 2015) and self-control demands (Muraven et al, 2005). The present study benefitted from using a sample that consisted of participants from the general population regular drinkers which increases the generalizability of the findings.…”

Visual and auditory contextual cues differentially influence alcohol-related inhibitory control

“…Individuals with low sensitivity to the acute effects of alcohol exhibit automatic approach biases towards alcohol-related visual stimuli, and experience more conflict when attempting to inhibit alcohol-cued compared to non-alcohol cued responses (Fleming & Bartholow, 2014). Non-problem drinkers also appear to show disinhibition towards alcohol-related visual stimuli, responding with significantly more errors and quicker reaction times towards alcohol-related stimuli on the Cued Go/No-Go task (Kreusch et al, 2013) and anti-saccade task (Jones & Field, 2015;King & Byers, 2004;Laude & Fillmore, 2015;McAteer, Curran, & Hanna, 2015). This heightened approach bias towards alcohol-related stimuli is theorised to reflect the salience of such cues to individuals who consume alcohol (Grant & Macdonald, 2005;Rose & Duka, 2008).…”