Department of Psychology, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois.
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois.
Biol Psychiatry. 2021 May 15;89(10):990-1000. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.11.024. Epub 2020 Dec 11.
An understanding of alcohol's acute neural effects could augment our knowledge of mechanisms underlying alcohol-related cognitive/motor impairment and inform interventions for addiction. Focusing on studies employing event-related brain potential methods, which offer a direct measurement of neural activity in functionally well-characterized brain networks, we present the first meta-analysis to explore acute effects of alcohol on the human brain.
Databases were searched for randomized laboratory alcohol-administration trials assessing brain activity using event-related potentials. Hedges' g coefficients were pooled using 3-level random-effects meta-regression.
Sixty independent randomized controlled trials met inclusion (total N = 2149). Alcohol's effects varied significantly across neural systems, with alcohol leading to reductions in event-related potential components linked with attention (P3b), g = -0.40, 95% CI (-0.50, -0.29), automatic auditory processing (mismatch negativity), g = -0.44, 95% CI (-0.66, -0.22), and performance monitoring (error-related negativity), g = -0.56, 95% CI (-0.79, -0.33). These effects were moderated by alcohol dose, emerging as significant at doses as low as 0.026% blood alcohol concentration and increasing to moderate/large at 0.12%. In contrast, irrespective of dose, relatively small or nonsignificant alcohol effects emerged in other processing domains, including those linked to executive control (N2b responses) and stimulus classification (N2c responses).
Contrary to traditional conceptualizations of alcohol as a "dirty drug" with broad central nervous system depressant effects, results instead support accounts positing targeted alcohol effects in specific processing domains. By identifying alcohol effects on brain systems involved in performance monitoring and attention, results move toward the identification of mechanisms underlying alcohol-related impairment as well as factors reinforcing addiction.
了解酒精的急性神经效应可以增强我们对酒精相关认知/运动障碍的机制的认识，并为成瘾干预提供信息。本研究聚焦于采用事件相关脑电位方法的研究，该方法可直接测量功能明确的大脑网络中的神经活动，我们首次进行了荟萃分析以探讨酒精对人类大脑的急性影响。
检索了数据库中使用事件相关电位评估大脑活动的随机实验室酒精给药试验。使用 3 级随机效应荟萃回归对 Hedges'g 系数进行汇总。
共有 60 项独立的随机对照试验符合纳入标准（总 N=2149）。酒精对神经系统的影响差异显著，酒精导致与注意力相关的事件相关电位成分（P3b）减少，g=-0.40，95%CI（-0.50，-0.29），自动听觉处理（错配负波），g=-0.44，95%CI（-0.66，-0.22）和表现监测（错误相关负波），g=-0.56，95%CI（-0.79，-0.33）。这些影响受到酒精剂量的调节，在低至 0.026%血液酒精浓度的剂量下就变得显著，而在 0.12%的剂量下则增加到中等/大剂量。相比之下，无论剂量如何，其他处理领域，包括与执行控制（N2b 反应）和刺激分类（N2c 反应）相关的领域，都出现了相对较小或无统计学意义的酒精影响。
与传统上认为酒精是一种具有广泛中枢神经系统抑制作用的“肮脏药物”的概念相反，结果支持了在特定处理领域存在有针对性的酒精作用的观点。通过确定酒精对与注意力和表现监测相关的大脑系统的影响，结果朝着确定与酒精相关的损害的机制以及增强成瘾的因素迈进。
