Response inhibition toward alcohol cues in heavy drinkers and alcohol dependent patients

Alcohol addictive behaviors have been recently associated with a combination of deficits in executive function, such as a weak response inhibition, and potent automatic appetitive responses for alcohol-related cues. The aim of the present studies was to investigate response inhibition for alcohol and neutral or soft drink cues in alcohol abusers and alcohol dependent patients. Response inhibition was assessed in a go/nogo task with pictures of alcohols, soft drinks or neutrals objects. In this task, participants had to respond to specific stimuli (go trial) and inhibit that action under a different set of stimuli (nogo trial). Faster responses for alcohol in go trials reflect approach tendency for alcohol cues while false alarm responses for alcohol in nogo trials reflect a deficit in response inhibition toward alcohol-related cues. Moreover, since standard alcohol cues are not equally appreciated across participants, the preference for the different alcoholic drinks presented were measured and analyzed in reference to task responses. Both light and heavy drinkers showed faster responses to alcohol cues in go trial relative to soft/neutral cues. Preliminary results indicate a negative relationship between the preference scores for alcohols and the reaction times to those stimuli in go trials. The present study also demonstrated that the presence of brands logo significantly altered the discrimination and reactions time patterns of response to alcohol and soft cues.