Facultad de Educación y Psicología, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain.
Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Front Public Health. 2024 Jun 14;12:1348960. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1348960. eCollection 2024.
Stress is one of the main environmental factors involved in the onset of different psychopathologies. In youth, stressful life events can trigger inappropriate and health-damaging behaviors, such as binge drinking. This behavior, in turn, can lead to long-lasting changes in the neurophysiological response to stress and the development of psychological disorders late in life, e.g., alcohol use disorder. Our aim was to analyze the pattern of neurophysiological responses triggered with the exposition to a stressful virtual environment in young binge drinkers.
AUDIT-3 (third question from the full AUDIT) was used to detect binge drinking (BD) in our young sample (age 18-25 years). According to the score, participants were divided into control (CO) and BD group. Next, a standardized virtual reality (VR) scenario (Richie's Plank) was used for triggering the stress response while measuring the following neurophysiological variables: brain electrical activity by electroencephalogram (EEG) and cortisol levels through saliva samples both measurements registered before and after the stressful situation. Besides, heart rate (HR) with a pulsometer and electrodermal response (EDA) through electrodes placed on fingers were analyzed before, during and after the VR task.
Regarding the behavior assessed during the VR task, BD group spent significantly less amount of time walking forward the table and a tendency toward more time walking backwards. There was no statistically significant difference between the BD and the CO group regarding time looking down, but when we controlled the variable sex, the BD women group displayed higher amount of time looking down than the rest of the groups. Neurophysiological measurements revealed that there was not any statistically significant difference between groups in any of the EEG registered measures, EDA response and cortisol levels. Sex-related differences were found in HR response to VR scenario, in which BD women displayed the highest peak of response to the stressor. Also, the change in heartbeat was higher in BD women than men.
Unveiling the neurophysiological alterations associated with BD can help us to prevent and detect early onset of alcohol use disorder. Also, from our data we conclude that participants' sex can modulate some stress responses, especially when unhealthy behaviors such as BD are present. Nevertheless, the moment of registration of the neurophysiological variables respect to the stressor seems to be a crucial variable.
压力是引发各种精神病理学的主要环境因素之一。在青年时期，生活中的压力事件可能会引发不适当的、有损健康的行为，如 binge drinking（狂饮）。这种行为反过来又会导致神经生理对压力的反应产生持久变化，并导致日后出现心理障碍，例如酒精使用障碍。我们的目的是分析在年轻的 binge drinkers（狂饮者）中，暴露于应激虚拟环境所引发的神经生理反应模式。
使用 AUDIT-3（AUDIT 的第三个问题）来检测我们年轻样本（18-25 岁）中的 binge drinking（BD）。根据得分，参与者被分为对照组（CO）和 BD 组。接下来，使用标准化的虚拟现实（VR）场景（里奇的木板）来触发应激反应，同时测量以下神经生理变量：脑电图（EEG）记录的脑电活动和唾液样本中的皮质醇水平，这两个测量值均在应激前后进行记录。此外，通过放置在手指上的电极分析心率（HR）和皮肤电反应（EDA），并在 VR 任务之前、期间和之后进行分析。
关于 VR 任务中的行为评估，BD 组在向前走木板上花费的时间明显较少，向后走的时间有增加的趋势。BD 组和 CO 组在低头时间上没有统计学上的显著差异，但当我们控制性别变量时，BD 女性组比其他组低头时间更长。神经生理测量结果显示，在任何 EEG 记录的指标、EDA 反应和皮质醇水平方面，两组之间均无统计学上的显著差异。在 HR 对 VR 场景的反应方面发现了与性别相关的差异，BD 女性组对压力源的反应峰最高。此外，BD 女性的心跳变化比男性更高。
揭示与 BD 相关的神经生理变化可以帮助我们预防和早期发现酒精使用障碍。此外，根据我们的数据，我们得出结论，参与者的性别可以调节某些应激反应，特别是在存在不健康行为（如 BD）的情况下。然而，神经生理变量相对于应激源的记录时刻似乎是一个关键变量。
