Citation

Gorka SM, Kreutzer KA, Petrey KM, Radoman M, Phan KL. Addict. Biol. 2019; ePub(ePub): e12774.

Affiliation

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/adb.12774

PMID

31173426

Abstract

A developing theory is that individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) display exaggerated reactivity to threats that are uncertain (U-threat), which facilitates excessive drinking as a means of avoidance-based coping. There is a promising initial behavioral evidence supporting this theory; however, the neural bases of reactivity to U-threat in individuals with AUD have not been examined. The extent to which biomarkers of U-threat reactivity map onto drinking behaviors and coping motives for alcohol use is also unknown. The current study therefore examined group differences in behavioral and neural reactivity to U-threat in adults with and without AUD. The study also tested whether behavior and brain responses to U-threat correlate with problematic drinking and coping motivated drinking. Volunteers (n = 65) with and without a history of AUD (38 AUD, 27 controls) were included and completed a well-validated threat-of-shock task to probe responses to U-threat and predictable threat (P-threat) while startle eyeblink potentiation was collected. Individuals also completed a newly designed, analogous version of the task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS indicated that individuals with AUD displayed greater startle magnitude during U-threat, but not P-threat, and greater right insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation during both forms of threat compared with controls. Startle magnitude and insula activation during U-threat positively correlated with self-reported problem drinking and coping motives for alcohol use.

FINDINGS demonstrate that individuals with AUD display exaggerated sensitivity to U-threat at the behavioral and neural level and that these multimethod biomarkers tap into negative reinforcement processes of alcohol abuse.

© 2019 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Language: en

Keywords

alcohol use disorder; anticipatory anxiety; coping motives; uncertain threat