Alcohol-attentional bias and motivational structure as independent predictors of social drinkers’ alcohol consumption

Background and Aims: Research indicates that high consumers of alcohol exhibit attentional bias (AB) towards alcohol-related cues, suggestive of a cognitive mechanism that might drive substance seeking. Many tasks that measure AB (e.g., visual probe, addiction Stroop), however, are limited by their reliance on non-appetitive control cues, the serial presentation of stimuli, and their poor internal reliability. The current study employed a visual conjunction search (VCS) task capable of presenting multiple alcoholic and non-alcoholic appetitive cues simultaneously to assess whether social drinkers attend selectively to alcoholic stimuli. To assess the construct validity of this task, we examined whether alcohol consumption and related problems, subjective craving, and drinking motives predict alcohol-specific AB. Design & Setting: A VCS task was performed in a laboratory setting, which required participants to detect the presence of appetitive alcoholic (wine, beer) and non-alcoholic (cola, lemonade) targets within arrays of matching and non-matching distractors. Participants: Data from 99 participants were assessed (MAge = 20.77, SD = 2.98; 64 [65%] females), with 81.8% meeting the threshold for harmful alcohol consumption (MAUDIT = 12.89, SD = 5.79). Measurements: Self-reports of alcohol consumption and related problems (AUDIT), subjective craving (Alcohol Craving Questionnaire Short Form) and drinking motives (Drinking Motives Questionnaire Short Form) were obtained, and the VCS task measured response times for the correct detection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic targets. Findings: Participants were significantly quicker to detect alcoholic relative to non-alcoholic appetitive targets (p < .001, dz = .41), which was predicted positively by AUDIT scores (p = .013, R2 = .06%). The VCS task achieved excellent reliability (α > .79), superior to other paradigms. Conclusions: The Visual Conjunction Search task presents as a highly reliable method for assessing alcohol-related attentional bias, and shows that heavy social drinkers prioritise alcoholic cues in their immediate environment.

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Should fertile women quit drinking alcohol to produce better quality oocytes?

Zygote ◽

10.1017/s0967199420000696 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

Burcu Ozbakir ◽

Pinar Tulay

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Young Women ◽

Antral Follicle ◽

Antral Follicle Count ◽

Control Group ◽

Social Drinkers ◽

Antral Follicles ◽

Healthy Women ◽

Significant Difference

Summary Alcohol consumption has long been shown to affect both fetal health and pregnancy. In this study, antral follicle count, maturation level of oocytes including morphological assessment and number of metaphase I (MI), metaphase II (MII) and germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes obtained from young women (age < 30 years old) with or without alcohol consumption were investigated. In total, 20 healthy women who were social drinkers and 36 healthy women who do not consume alcohol were involved in this study. Women in both study and control groups were undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation. The antral follicle count and the number and quality of the oocytes retrieved were evaluated and recorded. In total, 635 antral follicles, 1098 follicles and 1014 oocytes with 820 MII, 72 MI and 78 GV stage oocytes were collected from the social drinkers. In the control group, 628 antral follicles, 1136 follicles and 1085 oocytes with 838 MII, 93 MI and 102 GV stage oocytes were evaluated. The results of this study showed that the antral follicle count was very similar in both groups. The number of oocytes and MII stage oocytes was slightly higher in the control group, although it was not a significant difference. This study showed that although the consumption of alcohol may have adverse effects post-implantation, it may not have a solid effect during oogenesis in young women. The results of this study are especially important in clinical settings as some women who are social drinkers undergo in vitro fertilization treatments.

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Association between the DRD2 gene Taq1A (C32806T) polymorphism and alcohol consumption in social drinkers

The Pharmacogenomics Journal ◽

10.1038/sj.tpj.6500294 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 96-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

M R Munafò ◽

E C Johnstone ◽

K I Welsh ◽

R T Walton

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Drd2 Gene ◽

Social Drinkers

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Risk, pleasure and information – notes concerning the discursive space of prevention

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.1177/1458612602019005-611 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 19 (5-6) ◽

pp. 337-346

Author(s):

Anders Bergmark

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Risk Information ◽

Moral Discourse ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

Alcohol Prevention ◽

Freedom Of Choice ◽

Traditional Role ◽

Discursive Space ◽

Motivational Structure

In this paper the notions of risk, pleasure and information are discussed with reference both to their utilization within the prevention discourse and to their relation to a process of de-traditionalization. It is suggested that the current lack of options for moral discourse directed towards the individual's freedom of choice, restricts the vocabulary of prevention to deal only with the harm produced by alcohol consumption. Prevention discourses can-not address the motivational structure connected to the individual's pursuit for pleasure and self-fulfilling experiences. This constraint can be seen as a contributing factor to the centrality of risk in alcohol prevention discourses. Although risk-information is produced within the scientific community by a logic of its own, it is also related to the individuals expanding menu of choices that follows with subject-centered individualism with little or no room for moral discourse concerning the individual's construction of lifestyle and identity. When morality is no longer present, only risk can fill its traditional role, that of being a reason for renouncing. It is not by chance that the most important actors on the alcohol policy scene in traditional temperance societies now are professionals and bureaucrats and not voluntary temperance organizations and that the latter have increasingly adopted their arguments from the former.

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Attentional bias associated with alcohol cues: differences between heavy and occasional social drinkers

Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1007/s002130100764 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 157 (1) ◽

pp. 67-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 213

Author(s):

Townshend J. ◽

Duka T.

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Social Drinkers ◽

Alcohol Cues

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Independent and Interactive Effects of OPRM1 and DAT1 Polymorphisms on Alcohol Consumption and Subjective Responses in Social Drinkers

Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research ◽

10.1111/acer.13384 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (6) ◽

pp. 1093-1104 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Elise M. Weerts ◽

Gary S. Wand ◽

Brion Maher ◽

Xiaoqiang Xu ◽

Mary Ann Stephens ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Subjective Responses ◽

Social Drinkers

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Alcohol-related Attentional Bias Variability and Conflicting Automatic Associations

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology ◽

10.5127/jep.062317 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 204380871877963 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Thomas E. Gladwin ◽

Matthijs Vink

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Implicit Associations ◽

Risky Drinking ◽

Stimulus Interval ◽

Social Drinkers ◽

Visual Probe ◽

Single Target ◽

Automatic Associations ◽

Attentional Responses

Attentional bias variability may be related to alcohol abuse. Of potential use for studying variability is the anticipatory attentional bias: Bias due to the locations of predictively-cued rather than already-presented stimuli. The hypothesis was tested that conflicting automatic associations are related to attentional bias variability. Further, relationships were explored between anticipatory biases and individual differences related to alcohol use. 74 social drinkers performed a cued Visual Probe Task and univalent Single-Target Implicit Associations Tasks. Questionnaires were completed on risky drinking, craving, and motivations to drink or refrain from drinking. Conflict was related to attentional bias variability at the 800 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval. Further, a bias related to craving and risky drinking was found at the 400 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval. Thus, the selection of attentional responses was biased by predicted locations of expected salient stimuli. The results support a role of conflicting associations in attentional bias variability.

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