Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 6, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 21;10(1):12104. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68942-y.
The development of alcohol habits is considered a form of maladaptive reinforced learning, with sustained alcohol use resulting in the strengthening of associative links between consumption and either rewarding, or the lack of aversive, experiences. Despite recent efforts in characterizing decision-making skills in alcohol-use-disorder (AUD), it is still unknown whether impaired behavioural learning in AUD patients reflects a defective processing and anticipation of choice-related, cognitively mediated, emotions such as regret or relief for what might have been under a different choice. We administered a Wheel-of-Fortune (WoF) task to 26 AUD patients and 19 healthy controls, to investigate possible alterations in adjusting choices to the magnitude of experienced regret/relief, and in other facets of decision-making performance such as choice latency. AUD patients displayed both longer deliberation time than healthy controls, and impaired adaptations to previous outcome-related negative emotions. Although further evidence is needed to unveil the cognitive mechanisms underlying AUD patients' abnormal choice, the present results highlight important implications for the clinical practice, e.g. in terms of cognitive treatments aiming to shape faulty perceptions about negative emotions associated with excessive alcohol exposure.
酒精习惯的发展被认为是一种适应不良的强化学习形式，持续饮酒会导致消费与奖励或缺乏厌恶体验之间的关联加强。尽管最近在描述酒精使用障碍（AUD）患者的决策技能方面做出了努力，但仍不清楚 AUD 患者的行为学习受损是否反映了对与选择相关的认知介导情绪（例如对可能做出不同选择的遗憾或解脱）的处理和预期存在缺陷。我们对 26 名 AUD 患者和 19 名健康对照者进行了轮盘赌任务（WoF），以研究对经历的遗憾/解脱的程度调整选择的可能性，以及在其他决策表现方面，例如选择潜伏期。AUD 患者的思考时间比健康对照组长，并且对先前与结果相关的负面情绪的适应能力受损。尽管需要进一步的证据来揭示 AUD 患者异常选择的认知机制，但目前的结果对临床实践具有重要意义，例如在旨在改变与过度饮酒相关的负面情绪的错误认知的认知治疗方面。
