Citation

Birak KS, Higgs S, Terry P. Alcohol Alcohol. 2011; 46(6): 686-693.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/alcalc/agr084

PMID

21862534

Abstract

AIMS: To test whether the repeated consumption of alcohol in a particular environment leads to the emergence of a context-specific conditioned compensatory response (CCR) that can counter alcohol's impairment of inhibitory processes. METHODS: Twenty-four participants consumed an alcoholic drink (males: 0.65 g/kg; females: 0.57 g/kg) in one context on three sessions and a matched placebo drink in a different context on three other sessions. At test, participants were split into two groups and consumed a novel alcoholic drink either in the context previously paired with alcohol or the placebo-paired context. On all sessions, participants were tested on two computer-based tasks that measured response inhibition: an affective go/no-go task and a stop-signal task (SST). RESULTS: Over the conditioning trials, tolerance developed to alcohol's disinhibitory effects on the go/no-go task; moreover, on the test for conditioned responding, performance was less impaired for participants in the alcohol-paired versus the placebo-paired context. No tolerance was evident on the SST, and no CCR. CONCLUSION: Repeated consumption of alcohol in a particular environment can lead to the emergence of a context-specific CCR that counters some of alcohol's disinhibitory effects. Therefore, consuming alcohol in an unfamiliar context might produce stronger disinhibitory effects than would be apparent in a familiar drinking environment.

Language: en