Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
Neuroimaging Center, Technische Universität Dresden, Würzburger Straße 35, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2021 Jun;238(6):1593-1607. doi: 10.1007/s00213-021-05792-0. Epub 2021 Mar 4.
Inhibition is a core executive function and refers to the ability to deliberately suppress attention, behavior, thoughts, and/or emotions and instead act in a specific manner. While acute alcohol exposure has been shown to impair response inhibition in the stop-signal and Go/NoGo tasks, reported alcohol effects on attentional inhibition in the Stroop task are inconsistent. Notably, studies have operationalized attentional inhibition variably and there has been intra- and inter-individual variability in alcohol exposure.
This study aimed to examine the acute effects of alcohol on attentional inhibition, considering previous limitations.
In a single-blind, cross-over design, 40 non-dependent participants with a medium-to-high risk drinking behavior performed a Counting Stroop task (CST) under a baseline and an arterial blood alcohol concentration (aBAC) clamp at 80 mg%. Attentional inhibition was assessed as the alteration of reaction times (RT), error rates (ER), and inverse efficiency scores (IES) between incongruent and congruent trials (interference score). Stroop performance was also assessed regardless of trial-type.
Compared to saline, acute alcohol exposure via an aBAC clamp did not affect CST interference scores but increased RTs and IES in both incongruent and congruent trials.
Attentional inhibition (Stroop interference score) was not impaired by clamped moderate alcohol exposure. Acute alcohol impaired Stroop performance evidenced by a general increase in response times. Our findings suggest that response and attentional inhibition do not share the same neurocognitive mechanisms and are affected differently by alcohol. Results could also be explained by automated behaviors known to be relatively unaffected by acute alcohol.
抑制是一种核心执行功能，是指能够有意地抑制注意力、行为、思想和/或情绪，转而以特定的方式行事。虽然急性酒精暴露已被证明会损害停止信号和 Go/NoGo 任务中的反应抑制，但报告的酒精对 Stroop 任务中的注意力抑制的影响不一致。值得注意的是，研究对注意力抑制的操作性定义各不相同，且酒精暴露在个体内和个体间存在差异。
本研究旨在检查酒精对注意力抑制的急性影响，同时考虑到之前的局限性。
在一项单盲、交叉设计中，40 名非依赖的、有中高风险饮酒行为的参与者在基线和 80mg%的动脉血酒精浓度（aBAC）钳夹下进行计数 Stroop 任务（CST）。注意力抑制通过在不一致和一致试验之间的反应时（RT）、错误率（ER）和逆效率得分（IES）的变化来评估（干扰得分）。无论试验类型如何，都评估了 Stroop 表现。
与生理盐水相比，通过 aBAC 钳夹的急性酒精暴露并未影响 CST 干扰得分，但增加了不一致和一致试验中的 RT 和 IES。
受钳夹的适度酒精暴露并未损害注意力抑制（Stroop 干扰得分）。急性酒精通过普遍增加反应时间损害了 Stroop 表现。我们的研究结果表明，反应抑制和注意力抑制没有共同的神经认知机制，并且受到酒精的影响不同。这些结果还可以用已知相对不受急性酒精影响的自动化行为来解释。
