Interactive Effects of Naturalistic Drinking Context and Alcohol Sensitivity on Neural Alcohol Cue‐Reactivity Responses

• Published in: Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research Vol. 43; no. 8; pp. 1777 - 1789
• Main Authors: Martins, Jorge S., Bartholow, Bruce D., Cooper, M. Lynne, Irvin, Kelsey M., Piasecki, Thomas M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.08.2019
• Subjects: Acute effects; Alcohol; Alcohol Sensitivity; Alcohol use; Alcohols; Beverages; Cue Reactivity; Cues; Drinking; Drinking behavior; Event-related potentials; Incentive Salience; Low alcohol; Phenotypes; Phenotypic variations; Pictures; Reactivity; Sensitivity; Social Context; Young adults; Incentive Salience; Alcohol Sensitivity; Cue Reactivity; event-related potentials; Social Context
• ISSN: 0145-6008; 1530-0277
• DOI: 10.1111/acer.14134

Background Considerable evidence indicates that a low level of subjective response to alcohol's acute effects (i.e., low sensitivity) is associated with enhanced risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Recent work suggests that the highest risk response profile consists of blunted sensitivity to alcohol's sedation‐like effects, coupled with enhanced sensitivity to alcohol's stimulation‐like effects (i.e., differential sensitivity). A largely separate body of work indicates that enhanced reactivity to alcohol‐related cues is associated with increased AUD risk. Aims The current research examined the extent to which variability in alcohol response phenotypes is associated with enhanced P3 event‐related potential (ERP) responses to alcohol‐related pictures (ACR‐P3), and whether this reactivity varies according to depicted drinking contexts. Methods Eighty young adults (aged 18 to 33 years) completed a self‐report measure of alcohol sensitivity (the Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire) and viewed images depicting drinking in naturalistic contexts, alcohol and nonalcohol beverages in isolation (devoid of naturalistic drinking context), and neutral nonbeverage control images while ERPs were recorded. Results Results indicated that blunted sensitivity to alcohol's sedative‐like effects was differentially associated with enhanced ACR‐P3 but reduced P3 reactivity to nonalcohol cues. Variation in sensitivity to alcohol's stimulant‐like effects was not associated with differential ACR‐P3. Contrary to predictions, these effects were not potentiated by drinking contexts. Conclusions The current results replicate and extend previous work linking low alcohol sensitivity with enhanced incentive salience for alcohol‐related cues and suggest that cues depicting drinking contexts are less likely to differentiate high‐risk from low‐risk drinkers. The current study extended evidence linking low alcohol sensitivity to reactivity to alcohol cues by examining associations with two alcohol sensitivity phenotypes, and by varying the naturalistic drinking contexts in which alcohol cues were presented. The findings suggest that (1) the relationship between alcohol sensitivity and reactivity to alcohol cues is primarily driven by blunted sensitivity to the higher‐dose/sedation‐like effects, and (2) this association emerges for alcohol cues presented without people, but not when the cues depict people drinking.