CoActions Lab, Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
CoActions Lab, Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Neuroimage Clin. 2020;28:102383. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102383. Epub 2020 Aug 13.
Binge drinking consists in a pattern of consumption characterised by the repeated alternation between massive alcohol intakes and abstinence periods. A continuum hypothesis suggests that this drinking endeavour represents an early stage of alcohol dependence rather than a separate phenomenon. Among the variety of alterations in alcohol-dependent individuals (ADIs), one has to do with the motor system, which does not show a normal pattern of activity during action preparation. In healthy controls (HCs), motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over primary motor cortex (M1) show both facilitation and suppression effects, depending on the time and setting of TMS during action preparation. A recent study focusing on the suppression component revealed that this aspect of preparatory activity is abnormally weak in ADIs and that this defect scales with the risk of relapse. In the present study, we tested whether binge drinkers (BDs) present a similar deficit. To do so, we recorded MEPs in a set of hand muscles applying TMS in 20 BDs and in 20 matched HCs while they were preparing index finger responses in an instructed-delay choice reaction time task. Consistent with past research, the MEP data in HCs revealed a strong MEP suppression in this task. This effect was evident in all hand muscles, regardless of whether they were relevant or irrelevant in the task. BDs also showed some preparatory suppression, yet this effect was less consistent, especially in the prime mover of the responding hand. These findings suggest abnormal preparatory activity in BDs, similar to alcohol-dependent patients, though some of the current results also raise new questions regarding the significance of these observations.
binge drinking 是一种以反复交替大量饮酒和禁欲期为特征的消费模式。连续体假说表明，这种饮酒行为代表了酒精依赖的早期阶段，而不是一个单独的现象。在酒精依赖个体（ADIs）的各种变化中，有一种与运动系统有关，运动系统在动作准备期间没有表现出正常的活动模式。在健康对照组（HCs）中，经颅磁刺激（TMS）刺激初级运动皮层（M1）诱发的运动诱发电位（MEPs）表现出促进和抑制效应，这取决于 TMS 在动作准备期间的时间和设置。最近的一项研究集中在抑制成分上，发现 ADIs 中这种预备活动的方面异常薄弱，并且这种缺陷与复发的风险成正比。在本研究中，我们测试了 binge drinkers（BDs）是否存在类似的缺陷。为此，我们在 20 名 BDs 和 20 名匹配的 HCs 中记录了一组手部肌肉的 MEPs，当他们在手指示延迟选择反应时间任务中准备食指反应时，应用 TMS。与过去的研究一致，HCs 的 MEP 数据在该任务中显示出强烈的 MEP 抑制。这种效应在所有手部肌肉中都很明显，无论它们在任务中是否相关。BDs 也表现出一些预备性抑制，但这种效应不太一致，尤其是在反应手的主要推动者中。这些发现表明 BDs 存在异常的预备活动，类似于酒精依赖患者，尽管目前的一些结果也提出了这些观察结果的意义的新问题。
