Sarah A. Lust

Alcohol effects on performance monitoring and adjustment: affect modulation and impairment of evaluative cognitive control.

Alcohol is known to impair self-regulatory control of behavior, though mechanisms for this effect remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that alcohols reduction of negative affect (NA) is a key mechanism for such impairment. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN), a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) posited to reflect the extent to which behavioral control failures are experienced as distressing, while participants completed a laboratory task requiring self-regulatory control. Alcohol reduced both the ERN and error positivity (Pe) components of the ERP following errors and impaired typical posterror behavioral adjustment. Structural equation modeling indicated that effects of alcohol on both the ERN and posterror adjustment were significantly mediated by reductions in NA. Effects of alcohol on Pe amplitude were unrelated to posterror adjustment, however. These findings indicate a role for affect modulation in understanding alcohols effects on self-regulatory impairment and more generally support theories linking the ERN with a distress-related response to control failures.

Effects of Alcohol Sensitivity on P3 Event-Related Potential Reactivity to Alcohol Cues

Although alcoholics and individuals at risk for alcoholism often show smaller amplitude of the P3 event-related brain potential (ERP), recent data (K. Namkoong, E. Lee, C. H. Lee, B. O. Lee, & S. K. An, 2004) indicate that alcohol-related cues elicit larger P3 amplitude in alcoholics than in controls. Little is known concerning the ERP profiles or alcohol cue reactivity of social drinkers at risk for alcoholism due to low sensitivity to alcohols effects. Participants differing in alcohol sensitivity viewed images of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages while ERPs were recorded and provided information about their alcohol use patterns at baseline and 4 months later. Compared to high-sensitivity participants, those low in sensitivity showed larger P3s to alcohol cues, even when recent alcohol use was statistically controlled for. Moreover, the P3 elicited by alcohol cues predicted alcohol use at follow-up, a finding supporting the idea that P3 amplitude reflects the motivational significance of substance-related cues. These findings point to risk status, not consumption history, as an important predictor of cue reactivity effects.

Specificity of P3 Event-Related Potential Reactivity to Alcohol Cues in Individuals Low in Alcohol Sensitivity

Recent research using event-related potentials (ERPs) has shown that individuals low in alcohol sensitivity show increased P3 reactivity to alcohol cues (Bartholow, Henry, & Lust, 2007). The current research sought to test the specificity of this effect by including other arousing cues in addition to alcohol, and by controlling for individual differences in trait impulsivity. Forty-seven participants varying in self-reported alcohol sensitivity completed a visual oddball task including neutral, arousing (erotic and adventure-related), and beverage-related images while ERPs were recorded. Low-sensitivity participants showed increased P3 reactivity to alcohol cues relative to their high-sensitivity peers. However, P3 amplitude elicited by all other targets did not differ as a function of alcohol sensitivity levels. Differences in impulsivity and recent alcohol consumption did not account for sensitivity group differences in alcohol cue reactivity. These results point to the specific motivational salience of alcohol cues to individuals at risk for alcohol problems because of low alcohol sensitivity and suggest that P3 reactivity to alcohol cues could be a new endophenotype for alcohol use disorder risk.

Self-reported and P3 event-related potential evaluations of condoms: Does what we say match how we feel?

Research consistently reveals positive self-reported condom evaluations, yet such evaluations often do not predict condom use. Whereas positive self-reports likely reflect social norms regarding prevention of diseases and pregnancy, psychophysiological measures might better assess spontaneous condom evaluations. Here, participants completed a visual oddball task in which condoms and alcoholic beverages were infrequent targets among neutral, positive, and negative context images. Although self-reported condom evaluations were very positive, condom images presented in a negative context produced a smaller P3 than condom images presented in a neutral or positive context, suggesting that spontaneous condom evaluations were more negative than positive. The P3 elicited by alcohol images indicated positive evaluations. The findings underscore the multifaceted nature of evaluations and point to the utility of ERPs for assessing health-related attitudes.

Give me just a little more time: effects of alcohol on the failure and recovery of cognitive control.

Numerous externalizing behaviors, from aggression to risk taking to drug abuse, stem from impaired cognitive control, including that brought about by the acute effects of alcohol. Although research generally indicates that alcohol impairs cognitive abilities, a close examination of the literature suggests that alcohols effects are quite variable and likely depend on a number of contextual factors. The purpose of the current study was to characterize the effects of alcohol on cognitive control in terms of neural and behavioral responses to successful and unsuccessful control attempts. Participants were randomly assigned to consume an alcohol (0.80 g/kg ETOH), placebo, or nonalcoholic control beverage prior to completing a cognitive control (flanker) task while event-related brain potentials were recorded. Alcohol reduced the amplitude of the error-related negativity on error trials and increased the posterror compatibility effect in response time. Of particular interest, neural indices of conflict monitoring and performance adjustment (frontal slow wave) were attenuated by alcohol, but only on trials following errors. These functions had recovered, however, by 2 trials after an error. These findings suggest that alcohols effects on cognitive control are best characterized as impaired (or delayed) recovery following control failures. Implications of these findings for understanding alcohols effects on behavioral undercontrol are discussed.

Electrophysiological evidence of alcohol-related attentional bias in social drinkers low in alcohol sensitivity.

Low sensitivity to the acute effects of alcohol is a known risk factor for alcoholism. However, little is known concerning potential information-processing routes by which this risk factor might contribute to increased drinking. We tested the hypothesis that low-sensitivity (LS) participants would show biased attention to alcohol cues, compared with their high-sensitivity (HS) counterparts. Participants performed a task in which alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverage cues were presented bilaterally followed by a target that required categorization by color. Response times were faster for targets appearing in alcohol-cued than non-alcohol-cued locations for LS but not for HS participants. Event-related potential markers of early attention orienting (P1 amplitude) and subsequent attention reorienting (ipsilateral invalid negativity amplitude) indicated preferential selective attention to alcohol-cued locations among LS individuals. Controlling for recent drinking and family history of alcoholism did not affect these patterns, except that among HS participants, relatively heavy recent drinking was associated with difficulty reorienting attention away from alcohol-cued locations. These findings suggest a potential information-processing bias through which low sensitivity could lead to heavy alcohol involvement.