Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Louvain Experimental Psychopathology (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2021 Feb 24;56(2):166-174. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agaa093.
Emotional processing is a crucial ability in human and impairments in the processing of emotions are considered as transdiagnostic processes in psychopathology. In alcohol use disorder, numerous studies have investigated emotional processing and showed emotional deficits related to the perpetuation of alcohol use. Recent studies have also explored this topic in binge drinking, but few studies are available. In this paper, we explored whether emotional difficulties in binge drinking may be extended to implicit emotion processing.
We compared 39 binge drinkers (BD) and 40 non-binge drinkers who performed a gender categorization task while faces represented emotional expressions of anger, fear, happiness and sadness. Emotional brain responses were assessed thanks to functional magnetic resonance imaging. Emotional versus non-emotional conditions were first contrasted in the whole sample and groups were then compared.
Emotional condition led to differential activations than non-emotional condition, supporting the validity of the paradigm. Regarding group comparisons, BD exhibited higher activations in the left posterior cerebellum (anger processing) and the right anterior cingulate (fear processing) as well as lower activations in the left insula (happiness), the right post-central gyrus, the right cingulate gyrus and the right medial frontal gyrus (sadness processing).
Beyond emotional identification, BD presented differential brain responses following the implicit processing of emotions. Emotional difficulties in binge drinking might be related to a more automatic/unconscious processing of emotions.
情绪处理是人类的一项关键能力，而情绪处理障碍被认为是精神病理学中的一种跨诊断过程。在酒精使用障碍中，许多研究已经调查了情绪处理，并显示出与酒精使用持续相关的情绪缺陷。最近的研究也探讨了狂欢饮酒中的这个问题，但可用的研究较少。在本文中，我们探讨了狂欢饮酒者是否可能存在情绪困难，这些情绪困难是否会延伸到内隐情绪处理。
我们比较了 39 名狂欢饮酒者（BD）和 40 名非狂欢饮酒者，他们在执行性别分类任务时，面部呈现出愤怒、恐惧、快乐和悲伤的情绪表情。使用功能磁共振成像评估情绪大脑反应。首先在整个样本中比较情绪条件与非情绪条件的差异，然后比较组间差异。
情绪条件与非情绪条件的差异激活支持了该范式的有效性。关于组间比较，BD 在左后小脑（愤怒处理）和右前扣带回（恐惧处理）表现出更高的激活，而在左岛叶（快乐处理）、右后中央 gyrus、右扣带回 gyrus 和右内侧额回（悲伤处理）表现出更低的激活。
狂欢饮酒者在对情绪进行内隐处理时，表现出不同的大脑反应。狂欢饮酒者的情绪困难可能与情绪的更自动/无意识处理有关。
