Attentional bias, inhibitory control and acute stress in current and former opiate addicts

Historically, smokers were considered a single homogeneous group, but over the past two decades research has increasingly focused on differentiating daily and non-daily smokers. Despite fundamentally different smoking habits and motives, daily and non-daily smokers have similar cessation rates. In order to understand why both groups may experience a similar difficulty quitting smoking, this thesis explored neurocognitive mechanisms associated with addictive behaviour. In order to profile these mechanisms, a systematic review was conducted, highlighting there was a gap to address in two areas of research relating to drive and control. Study One (N = 60) and Study Two (N = 166) investigated attentional bias towards smoking cues using the visual probe task, finding there was no meaningful difference between daily and non-daily smokers in trait-level attentional bias. Study Three (N = 28) measured ERP components associated with inhibitory control (Go/NoGo task) and error processing (Eriksen Flanker task). There were no significant effects of interest, but the sample size was smaller than planned. This thesis made three contributions to the study of addictive behaviour. First, the systematic review highlighted that research investigating lighter and heavier smokers has a problematic level of heterogeneity in the definitions used to define the groups. Second, there was no meaningful difference in attentional bias between daily and non-daily smokers, supporting contemporary theories that attentional bias may be best conceptualised as a state-level construct. Finally, internal consistency estimates of the ERP measures of inhibitory control and error processing supported previous research reporting good psychometric properties. Overall, this thesis presented a focused profile of measures relating to drive and control neurocognitive mechanisms, but there were no meaningful differences between daily and non-daily smokers. If these mechanisms are important to addictive behaviour, future research will have to investigate their role using alternative designs.

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A Dual-Pathway Perspective on Food Choices in Adolescents: The Role of Loss of Control Over Eating

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630000 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Eva Van Malderen ◽

Eva Kemps ◽

Laurence Claes ◽

Sandra Verbeken ◽

Lien Goossens

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Food Choice ◽

Community Sample ◽

Food Choices ◽

Self Report ◽

Unhealthy Food ◽

Loss Of Control ◽

Dual Pathway ◽

Joint Contribution

IntroductionOne in three adolescents frequently consume unhealthy snacks, which is associated with negative developmental outcomes. To date, it remains unclear how intrapersonal factors account for food choices in adolescents. Guided by the dual-pathway model, the current study aimed to: (1) examine the joint contribution of inhibitory control and attentional bias in predicting unhealthy food choices in adolescents, and (2) determine whether this mechanism is more pronounced in adolescents who experience loss of control over eating (LOC).Materials and MethodsA community sample of 80 adolescents (65% female; 10–17 years old, Mage = 13.28, SD = 1.94) was recruited. Based on a self-report questionnaire, 28.7% of this sample reported at least one episode of LOC over the past month. Food choice was assessed using a computerized food choice task. Both inhibitory control and attentional bias were measured with behavioral tasks (go/no-go and dot probe task, respectively). Binary logistic regressions were conducted to address the research questions.ResultsInhibitory control and attentional bias did not significantly interact to predict unhealthy food choices. However, there was a significant three-way interaction between inhibitory control, attentional bias and LOC. For adolescents without LOC, the combination of poor inhibitory control and low attentional bias was significantly associated with unhealthy food choice. Surprisingly, for adolescents with LOC, there was no significant association between unhealthy food choice and inhibitory control or attentional bias.DiscussionDual-pathway processes do not seem to add to the explanation of food choice behavior for adolescents with LOC. For adolescents who do not experience LOC, those with poor inhibitory control combined with low attentional bias might be at particular risk for making unhealthy food choices.

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Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias interventions on psychophysiological tolerance of acute stress

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e539002013-091 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Niamh M. Higgins ◽

Brian M. Hughes

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Acute Stress ◽

The Impact

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The Effects of Placebo and Moderate Dose Alcohol on Attentional Bias, Inhibitory Control and Subjective Craving

Alcohol and Alcoholism ◽

10.1093/alcalc/agab011 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adam M McNeill ◽

Rebecca L Monk ◽

Adam W Qureshi ◽

Damien Litchfield ◽

Derek Heim

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Alcohol Intoxication ◽

Cognitive Tasks ◽

Moderate Dose ◽

Alcohol Dose ◽

Ad Libitum ◽

And Control ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Aims Previous research indicates that acute alcohol intoxication and placebo can inhibit people’s control over consumption behaviour and heighten attentional bias (AB) towards alcohol-related stimuli and craving. We designed a study to disentangle anticipated from pharmacological effects of alcohol in order to gain a clearer view of their relative contributions to alcohol consumption. Methods In a within-participants design (moderate alcohol dose, placebo and control), and over a minimum 2-week period, participants completed a battery of questionnaires and cognitive tasks, followed by a bogus taste task to measure ad libitum consumption. Results Both alcohol preload and placebo resulted in cognitive and psychological changes, including impaired inhibitory control, heightened AB and craving. However, ad libitum consumption only increased following alcohol and not placebo. Furthermore, inhibitory control impairments did not mediate the relationship between initial intoxication and ad libitum consumption, and findings indicate that increases in craving may mediate this association. Conclusion Psychological processes such as craving may be more important in driving consummatory behaviour relative to transient changes in cognitive processes, such as inhibitory control.

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Role of inhibitory processes in relapse prevention treatment

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.899 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. S44-S44

Author(s):

G. Rudio

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Startle Reflex ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Affective Modulation ◽

Frequent Relapses ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Alcohol Dependent

Alcohol dependence is a chronic disorder with frequent relapses during recovery. Most studies have pointed out that craving is the main process involved in relapse, but recently other factors have been implicated in it, such as attentional bias and impulsivity. Some authors consider that different stages could be involved in the relapse process, and each may be governed by different mechanisms: Attentional bias; motivational response to alcohol cues and inhibitory control.Motivationally salient cues attract and hold selective attention, and this “attentional bias, (AB)” is related to individual differences in appetitive and aversive motivation. In a recent review, attentional bias has been shown to be significantly present in alcohol-dependent and is associated with craving and risk to a relapse in alcohol consumption.In alcohol-dependent subjects, alcohol-related cues reach a very high motivational valence (Motivational response, MR), which, in effect, increases craving for alcohol and activates behavioral strategies towards alcohol intake. One method used to assess motivational valence of alcohol is the craving self-assessment. In addition, in recent years, the affective modulation of the startle reflex has been used as an objective measure of craving. It has been shown that subjects with a low baseline startle response when viewing alcohol-associated pictures are at major risk of relapse compared to those with increased reactions.Once alcohol craving has appeared, the subject will either drink or not, depending on his ability to resist his behavior towards alcohol consumption (impulsivity or inhibitory control, IC). Moreover, subjects that exhibit greater impulsivity are those more likely to relapse.Our group has recently conducted a study on a sample of 172 alcohol-dependent patients seen in outpatient therapeutic program during 12 weeks. All of them were assessed with the following measures: Attentional bias was assessed using the dot task, motivational response was evaluated using the affective modulation of the startle reflex paradigm, inhibitory control was assessed by the stop-signal reaction time task. Alcohol relapse variables were: relapse, days to the first relapse and days of accumulated abstinence.One of the most relevant results was that processes related to inhibitory control (Stop-signal reaction time and attentional bias) were the most relevant measures to explain variables related to relapse in alcohol consumption during the treatment period.Our results support the use of assessment strategies, therapeutic and pharmacological inhibtoria aimed at improving the ability of serious alcohol-dependent patients.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

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Acute stress increases ad-libitum alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers, but not through impaired inhibitory control

Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1007/s00213-016-4205-1 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 233 (7) ◽

pp. 1227-1234 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Elly McGrath ◽

Andrew Jones ◽

Matt Field

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Heavy Drinkers ◽

Ad Libitum

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Acute Psychological Stress Disrupts Attentional Bias to Threat-Related Stimuli

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-017-14138-w ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Caihong Jiang ◽

Tony W. Buchanan ◽

Zhuxi Yao ◽

Kan Zhang ◽

Jianhui Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Social Stress ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

P300 Amplitude ◽

Control Group ◽

Stress Group ◽

Acute Psychological Stress ◽

The Impact

Abstract The present study investigated the effect of acute stress on attentional bias to threat using behavioral and ERP methods. Sixty-two male participants were randomly assigned to a stress condition (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control condition. To examine the impact of stress-induced cortisol on attentional bias to threat, participants in the stress group were split into Low- and High cortisol responders. All participants were then administered a modified dot probe task in which the cues were neutral and angry faces. Behavioral results showed a pattern of attentional bias toward threat in the Control group but not in the stress group. For the ERPs, the P100 peaked earlier for the angry-cued targets than the neutral-cued targets in the Control group, which suggests a rapid, adaptive response toward threat. However, this effect was not observed in the stress group, suggesting a suppressed attentional bias under stress. In addition, the stress group (including both Low and High cortisol responders) showed reduced P300 amplitude to target onset than the Control group. These results suggest that acute stress disrupts attentional bias to threat including a reduction in early bias to threat in addition to a subsequent change of attention allocation.

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