Role of inhibitory processes in relapse prevention treatment

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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Impulsivity and Inhibitory Control

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00545.x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 60-64 ◽

Cited By ~ 751

Author(s):

Gordon D. Logan ◽

Russell J. Schachar ◽

Rosemary Tannock

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Choice Reaction Time ◽

Impulse Control ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Impulsive Behavior ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Prepotent Responses

We report an experiment testing the hypothesis that impulsive behavior reflects a deficit in the ability to inhibit prepotent responses Specifically, we examined whether impulsive people respond more slowly to signals to inhibit (stop signals) than non-impulsive people In this experiment, 136 undergraduate students completed an impulsivity questionnaire and then participated in a stop-signal experiment, in which they performed a choice reaction time (go) task and were asked to inhibit their responses to the go task when they heard a stop signal The delay between the go signal and the stop signal was determined by a tracking procedure designed to allow subjects to inhibit on 50% of the stop-signal trials Reaction time to the go signal did not vary with impulsivity, but estimated stop-signal reaction time was longer in more impulsive subjects, consistent with the hypothesis and consistent with results from populations with pathological problems with impulse control

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Countermanding saccades in macaque

Visual Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/s0952523800009482 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 929-937 ◽

Cited By ~ 130

Author(s):

Doug P. Hanes ◽

Jeffrey D. Schall

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Rhesus Monkeys ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Peripheral Target ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Time Required ◽

Saccade Generation

AbstractA countermanding paradigm was utilized to investigate the regulation of saccade initiation. Two rhesus monkeys were instructed to generate a saccade to a peripheral target; however, on a fraction of trials after a delay, the monkeys were signaled to inhibit saccade initiation. With short delays between the presentation of the target and the signal to inhibit saccade generation, monkeys withheld saccades to the peripheral target. As the delay of the stop signal increased, monkeys increasingly failed to withhold the saccade. The hypothesis that the generation of the saccade is determined by a race between a go and a stop process provides three explicit means of estimating the covert latency of response to the stop signal. This latency, known as stop signal reaction time, was estimated to be on average 82 ms for both monkeys. Because the stop signal latency represents the time required to exert inhibitory control over saccade production, the countermanding paradigm will be useful for studying neural mechanisms that regulate saccade initiation.

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Generalised inhibitory impairment to appetitive cues: From alcoholic to non-alcoholic visual stimuli

10.31234/osf.io/3cusq ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca Monk ◽

Adam Qureshi ◽

Charlotte Rebecca Pennington ◽

Iain Hamlin

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Visual Stimuli ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Research Methodologies ◽

Appetitive Stimuli ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Appetitive Cues

BackgroundPrior research demonstrates that individuals who consume alcohol show diminished inhibitory control towards alcohol-related cues. However, such research contrasts predominantly alcoholic appetitive cues with non-alcoholic, non-appetitive cues (e.g., stationary items). As such, it is not clear whether it is specifically the alcoholic nature of the cues that influences impairments in inhibitory control or whether more general appetitive processes are at play.AimsThe current study examined the hitherto untested assertion that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol-related stimuli might generalise to other appetitive liquid stimuli, but not to non-appetitive liquid stimuli.MethodFifty-nine participants (Mage = 21.63, SD = 5.85) completed a modified version of the Stop Signal Task, which exposed them to visual stimuli of three types of liquids: Alcoholic appetitive (e.g., wine), non-alcoholic appetitive (e.g., water) and non-appetitive (e.g., washing-up liquid).ResultsConsistent with predictions, Stop-signal reaction time was significantly longer for appetitive (alcoholic, non-alcoholic) compared to non-appetitive stimuli. Participants were also faster and less error-prone when responding to appetitive relative to non-appetitive stimuli on go-trials. There were no apparent differences in stop signal reaction times between alcoholic and non-alcoholic appetitive products.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that decreases in inhibitory control in response to alcohol-related cues might generalise to other appetitive liquids, possibly due to evaluative conditioning. Implications for existing research methodologies include the use of appetitive control conditions and the diversification of cues within tests of alcohol-related inhibitory control.

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Inhibitory Control in Rats Performing a Stop-Signal Reaction-Time Task: Effects of Lesions of the Medial Striatum and d-Amphetamine.

Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.1037/0735-7044.117.6.1302 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 117 (6) ◽

pp. 1302-1317 ◽

Cited By ~ 153

Author(s):

D. M. Eagle ◽

T. W. Robbins

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Reaction Time Task ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Time Task ◽

Task Effects ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time

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Lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex or nucleus accumbens core do not impair inhibitory control in rats performing a stop-signal reaction time task

Behavioural Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.bbr.2003.09.022 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 146 (1-2) ◽

pp. 131-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

D.M Eagle ◽

T.W Robbins

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Reaction Time ◽

Nucleus Accumbens ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Reaction Time Task ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽

Time Task ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time

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A Bayesian Parametric Approach for the Estimation of Stop-Signal Reaction Time Distributions

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e520602012-971 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dora Matzke ◽

Conor V. Dolan ◽

Gordon D. Logan ◽

Scott D. Brown ◽

Eric-Jan Wagenmakers

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Parametric Approach ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time

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Is motor inhibition involved in the processing of sentential negation? An assessment via the Stop-Signal Task

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s00426-021-01512-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Martina Montalti ◽

Marta Calbi ◽

Valentina Cuccio ◽

Maria Alessandra Umiltà ◽

Vittorio Gallese

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Language Processing ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

Good Tool ◽

Scientific Debate ◽

Sentential Negation ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Methodological Considerations

AbstractIn the last decades, the embodied approach to cognition and language gained momentum in the scientific debate, leading to evidence in different aspects of language processing. However, while the bodily grounding of concrete concepts seems to be relatively not controversial, abstract aspects, like the negation logical operator, are still today one of the main challenges for this research paradigm. In this framework, the present study has a twofold aim: (1) to assess whether mechanisms for motor inhibition underpin the processing of sentential negation, thus, providing evidence for a bodily grounding of this logic operator, (2) to determine whether the Stop-Signal Task, which has been used to investigate motor inhibition, could represent a good tool to explore this issue. Twenty-three participants were recruited in this experiment. Ten hand-action-related sentences, both in affirmative and negative polarity, were presented on a screen. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to the direction of the Go Stimulus (an arrow) and to withhold their response when they heard a sound following the arrow. This paradigm allows estimating the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT), a covert reaction time underlying the inhibitory process. Our results show that the SSRT measured after reading negative sentences are longer than after reading affirmative ones, highlighting the recruitment of inhibitory mechanisms while processing negative sentences. Furthermore, our methodological considerations suggest that the Stop-Signal Task is a good paradigm to assess motor inhibition’s role in the processing of sentence negation.

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Cognitive Modeling Suggests That Attentional Failures Drive Longer Stop-Signal Reaction Time Estimates in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/2167702619838466 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 856-872 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Alexander Weigard ◽

Andrew Heathcote ◽

Dóra Matzke ◽

Cynthia Huang-Pollock

Keyword(s):

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Reaction Time ◽

Attention Deficit ◽

Cognitive Modeling ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Unbiased Estimation ◽

Children With Adhd ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time

Mean stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) is frequently employed as a measure of response inhibition in cognitive neuroscience research on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, this measurement model is limited by two factors that may bias SSRT estimation in this population: (a) excessive skew in “go” RT distributions and (b) trigger failures, or instances in which individuals fail to trigger an inhibition process in response to the stop signal. We used a Bayesian parametric approach that allows unbiased estimation of the shape of entire SSRT distributions and the probability of trigger failures to clarify mechanisms of stop-signal task deficits in ADHD. Children with ADHD displayed greater positive skew than their peers in both go RT and SSRT distributions. However, they also displayed more frequent trigger failures, which appeared to drive ADHD-related stopping difficulties. Results suggest that performance on the stop-signal task among children with ADHD reflects impairments in early attentional processes, rather than inefficiency in the stop process.

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Age-Related Structural and Functional Changes of the Hippocampus and the Relationship with Inhibitory Control

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10121013 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1013

Author(s):

Sien Hu ◽

Chiang-shan R. Li

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Cognitive Aging ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Sequential Effect ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Functional Changes ◽

Age Related ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Age Related Changes

Aging is associated with structural and functional changes in the hippocampus, and hippocampal dysfunction represents a risk marker of Alzheimer’s disease. Previously, we demonstrated age-related changes in reactive and proactive control in the stop signal task, each quantified by the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) and sequential effect computed as the correlation between the estimated stop signal probability and go trial reaction time. Age was positively correlated with the SSRT, but not with the sequential effect. Here, we explored hippocampal gray matter volume (GMV) and activation to response inhibition and to p(Stop) in healthy adults 18 to 72 years of age. The results showed age-related reduction of right anterior hippocampal activation during stop success vs. go trials, and the hippocampal activities correlated negatively with the SSRT. In contrast, the right posterior hippocampus showed higher age-related responses to p(Stop), but the activities did not correlate with the sequential effect. Further, we observed diminished GMVs of the anterior and posterior hippocampus. However, the GMVs were not related to behavioral performance or regional activities. Together, these findings suggest that hippocampal GMVs and regional activities represent distinct neural markers of cognitive aging, and distinguish the roles of the anterior and posterior hippocampus in age-related changes in cognitive control.

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