University of Michigan, Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Center, 4250 Plymouth Road Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
University of Michigan, Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Center, 4250 Plymouth Road Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020 Apr 1;209:107882. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.107882. Epub 2020 Feb 5.
Both positive expectancies regarding the effects of alcohol and internalizing problems, including negative emotionality and deficits in emotion regulation, are known risk factors for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The current study is the first to investigate how neural response to emotional stimuli may impact alcohol expectancies and risk for AUD.
Functional neuroimaging data was collected during an emotional word task from 168 emerging adults (M age = 19.65; 66% male). Activation to negative versus neutral words and positive versus neutral words was extracted for analyses. Participants also reported on their alcohol expectancies and information regarding alcohol use and problems was collected prospectively throughout adolescence and into adulthood (up to age 30).
Decreased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) to negative versus neutral words was associated with increased post-scan alcohol consumption, measured as average drinks per year. There was a significant indirect effect of positive alcohol expectancies on the association between IFG activation and post-scan alcohol consumption, even when controlling for quantity of alcohol consumption prior to the scan.
These results are the first to provide evidence that positive alcohol expectancies account for variance shared between brain regions associated with emotion processing and increased drinking behaviors. Alcohol expectancies may provide a modifiable target for treatments to decrease the link between deficits in emotion regulation and increased alcohol use.
积极的酒精效应预期以及内化问题（包括负性情绪和情绪调节缺陷）都是酒精使用障碍（AUD）的已知风险因素。本研究首次调查了情绪刺激的神经反应如何影响酒精预期和 AUD 风险。
从 168 名成年早期个体（M 年龄=19.65 岁；66%为男性）中采集情绪词任务的功能神经影像学数据。提取负性词与中性词以及正性词与中性词之间的激活差异，用于分析。参与者还报告了他们的酒精预期，并且在整个青春期以及成年期（直至 30 岁）前瞻性地收集了关于饮酒和问题的信息。
与中性词相比，下额前回（IFG）对负性词的激活减少与扫描后饮酒量增加有关，以每年平均饮酒量来衡量。即使在控制扫描前饮酒量的情况下，积极的酒精预期对 IFG 激活与扫描后饮酒量之间的关联也存在显著的间接影响。
这些结果首次提供了证据，表明积极的酒精预期可以解释与情绪处理相关的大脑区域与饮酒行为增加之间的共同变化。酒精预期可能为治疗提供一个可改变的靶点，以减少情绪调节缺陷与饮酒增加之间的联系。
