Citation

Lannoy S, Billieux J, Maurage P. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2014; 8: 405.

Affiliation

Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain , Louvain-la-Neuve , Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fnhum.2014.00405

PMID

24926251

PMCID

PMC4044671

Abstract

Binge drinking is a widespread alcohol-consumption pattern in youth and is linked to cognitive consequences, mostly for executive functions. However, other crucial factors remain less explored in binge drinking and notably the emotional-automatic processes. Dual-process model postulates that addictive disorders are not only due to impaired reflective system (involved in deliberate behaviors), but rather to an imbalance between under-activated reflective system and over-activated affective-automatic one (involved in impulsive behaviors). This proposal has been confirmed in alcohol-dependence, but has not been tested in binge drinking. The observation of comparable impairments in binge drinking and alcohol-dependence led to the "continuum hypothesis," suggesting similar deficits across different alcohol-related disorders. In this perspective, applying the dual-process model to binge drinking might renew the understanding of this continuum hypothesis. A three-axes research agenda will be proposed, exploring: (1) the affective-automatic system in binge drinking; (2) the systems' interactions and imbalance in binge drinking; (3) the evolution of this imbalance in the transition between binge drinking and alcohol-dependence.

Language: en