Citation

Loeber S, Duka T. Psychopharmacology 2009; 205(4): 577-587.

Affiliation

Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany, sabine.loeber@zi-mannheim.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00213-009-1565-9

PMID

19468716

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent studies demonstrated that alcohol impairs inhibitory control of behavioural responses. AIMS: We questioned whether alcohol via its disinhibiting effects would also impair the inhibition of an instrumental avoidance response in the presence of a safety signal. DESIGN: Thirty-six moderate social drinkers were randomly allocated to receiving either alcohol (0.8 g/kg) or placebo before performing an instrumental avoidance procedure. White noise of 102 db was used as aversive outcome presented at a variable interval schedule in S+ trials, while no noise was presented in S- trials. An instrumental response (repeated space bar presses to avoid the noise presented at a variable interval) abolished the noise. The Stop Signal task and the affective Go/No-Go task were administered as inhibitory control tasks. RESULTS: Alcohol did not change the avoidance response rate in the presence of S- (safety signal). However, participants under alcohol performed the avoidance response to a lower extent than placebo subjects in S+ trials. Alcohol impaired performance in the Stop Signal task and increased the number of commission errors in the affective Go/No-Go task. Conditioned attentional and emotional responses to the S+ as well as knowledge of stimulus-response outcome contingencies were not affected by alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: Acute alcohol may decrease the motivation to avoid negative consequences and thus might contribute to risky behaviour and binge drinking.

Language: en