A dual‐process exploration of binge drinking: Evidence through behavioral and electrophysiological findings

in Addiction Biology (2020), 25(2), 12685

The dual‐process model, describing addictive disorders as resulting from an imbalance between increased automatic approach behaviors towards the substance and reduced abilities to control these behaviors ... [more ▼]

The dual‐process model, describing addictive disorders as resulting from an imbalance between increased automatic approach behaviors towards the substance and reduced abilities to control these behaviors, constitutes a sound theoretical framework to understand alcohol‐use disorders. The present study aimed at exploring this imbalance at behavioral and cerebral levels in binge drinking, a pattern of excessive alcohol consumption frequently observed in youth, by assessing both reflective control abilities and automatic processing of alcohol‐related stimuli. For this purpose, 25 binge drinkers and 25 comparison participants performed a Go/No‐Go task during electrophysiological recording. Inhibition abilities were investigated during explicit (ie, distinguishing alcoholic versus nonalcoholic drinks) and implicit (ie, distinguishing sparkling versus nonsparkling drinks, independently of their alcohol content) processing of beverage cues. Binge drinkers presented poorer inhibition for the explicit processing of beverage cues, as well as reduced N200 amplitude for the specific processing of alcohol‐related stimuli. As a whole, these findings indicated inhibition impairments in binge drinkers, particularly for alcohol cues processing and at the attentional stage of the cognitive stream. In line with the dual‐process model, these results support that binge drinking is already characterized by an underactivation of the reflective system combined with an overactivation of the automatic system. Results also underlined the influence of explicit processing compared with implicit ones. At the clinical level, our findings reinforce the need to develop intervention methods focusing on the inhibition of approach behaviors towards alcohol‐related stimuli. [less ▲]

Enhancement motivation to drink predicts binge drinking in adolescence: a longitudinal study in a community sample

in American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse (2019), 45(3), 304-312

Background: Binge drinking, characterized by alternations between intense alcohol intakes and abstinence periods, is the most frequent alcohol consumption pattern among adolescents and has been repeatedly ... [more ▼]

Background: Binge drinking, characterized by alternations between intense alcohol intakes and abstinence periods, is the most frequent alcohol consumption pattern among adolescents and has been repeatedly associated with cognitive and cerebral impairments. Objectives: In view of these harmful consequences, it appears crucial to disentangle the psychological factors involved in the emergence of binge drinking in adolescence, and centrally the role played by drinking motives, which have been strongly related to binge drinking habits. Methods: Using a longitudinal design, the present study explored the role of drinking motives (i.e. social order, conformity, enhancement, coping) in the emergence of binge drinking among young adolescents from the community. One hundred and forty-four young adolescents (81 girls) took part in a research assessing alcohol consumption and drinking motives at two assessment times (T1 and T2), with a one-year interval. After data checking, 101 adolescents (57 girls) aged from 12 to 15 years old were included in the study. Results: Correlations showed strong relationships between drinking motives and binge drinking. Additional regression analyses were then computed to determine how drinking motives assessed at T1 predicted binge drinking at T2, while controlling for global alcohol use. Results showed that the statistical model explained 60% of the binge drinking variance. In particular, the enhancement motivation, which is related to the search for the enjoyable sensations felt when drinking alcohol, constituted the unique predictor of future binge drinking. Conversely, in contrast with previous studies, social motives did not predict binge drinking in young adolescents. Conclusion: These findings highlight the central role of enhancement motivation (e.g., focusing on the positive expectancies towards alcohol) in youths’ alcohol consumption and call for the development of preventive interventions. It also suggests that the previously reported relationship between social motives and college drinking does not seem to play a key role in the early steps of binge drinking habits. [less ▲]

Is there room for attentional impairments in binge drinking? A commentary on Carbia et al. (2018).

in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews (2019), 98

Binge drinking is an excessive pattern of alcohol use, highly prevalent in adolescents and young adults. Several studies have explored the cognitive impairments associated with binge drinking, and Carbia ... [more ▼]

Binge drinking is an excessive pattern of alcohol use, highly prevalent in adolescents and young adults. Several studies have explored the cognitive impairments associated with binge drinking, and Carbia et al. (2018) recently proposed a systematic review of these impairments. Although this review offers an insightful and up-to-date synthesis of this research field, the authors concluded that binge drinking is not associated with attentional impairments. We argue that such conclusion is premature. We identified published studies not mentioned by Carbia et al. (2018), which documented attentional impairments in binge drinking. In particular, a differential exploration of attentional networks has suggested that binge drinkers not only exhibit impairments for the executive control of attention, but also for its alerting network. We thus recommend a better consideration of attention in future experimental and translational research agendas. [less ▲]

Electrophysiological correlates of emotional crossmodal processing in binge drinking.

in Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience (2018), 18(6), 1076-1088

Emotional crossmodal integration (i.e., multisensorial decoding of emotions) is a crucial process that ensures adaptive social behaviors and responses to the environment. Recent evidence suggests that in ... [more ▼]

Emotional crossmodal integration (i.e., multisensorial decoding of emotions) is a crucial process that ensures adaptive social behaviors and responses to the environment. Recent evidence suggests that in binge drinking-an excessive alcohol consumption pattern associated with psychological and cerebral deficits-crossmodal integration is preserved at the behavioral level. Although some studies have suggested brain modifications during affective processing in binge drinking, nothing is known about the cerebral correlates of crossmodal integration. In the current study, we asked 53 university students (17 binge drinkers, 17 moderate drinkers, 19 nondrinkers) to perform an emotional crossmodal task while their behavioral and neurophysiological responses were recorded. Participants had to identify happiness and anger in three conditions (unimodal, crossmodal congruent, crossmodal incongruent) and two modalities (face and/or voice). Binge drinkers did not significantly differ from moderate drinkers and nondrinkers at the behavioral level. However, widespread cerebral modifications were found at perceptual (N100) and mainly at decisional (P3b) stages in binge drinkers, indexed by slower brain processing and stronger activity. These cerebral modifications were mostly related to anger processing and crossmodal integration. This study highlights higher electrophysiological activity in the absence of behavioral deficits, which could index a potential compensation process in binge drinkers. In line with results found in severe alcohol-use disorders, these electrophysiological findings show modified anger processing, which might have a deleterious impact on social functioning. Moreover, this study suggests impaired crossmodal integration at early stages of alcohol-related disorders. [less ▲]

Executive Impairments in Binge Drinking: Evidence for a Specific Performance-Monitoring Difficulty during Alcohol-Related Processing.

in European addiction research (2018), 24(3), 118-127

This study evaluated inhibition and performance-monitoring abilities through the explicit processing of alcohol cues. Twenty-two binge drinkers (BD) and 22 control participants performed a speeded Go/No ... [more ▼]

This study evaluated inhibition and performance-monitoring abilities through the explicit processing of alcohol cues. Twenty-two binge drinkers (BD) and 22 control participants performed a speeded Go/No-Go task using pictures of alcohol and soft cans as Go and No-Go targets. This task measures inhibitory control and performance monitoring (i.e., task adjustment through errors and feedback processing) during the explicit processing of alcohol cues. Groups did not significantly differ regarding inhibition abilities. However, BD had poorer performance-monitoring abilities, reflected by a difficulty to adjust after errors, especially when these errors were related to alcohol cues. These findings suggest that the explicit processing of alcohol cues negatively impacts cognitive abilities among BD. [less ▲]

Preserved crossmodal integration of emotional signals in binge drinking

in Frontiers in Psychology (2017), 8

Binge drinking is an alcohol consumption pattern with various psychological and cognitive consequences. As binge drinking showed qualitatively comparable cognitive impairments to those reported in alcohol ... [more ▼]

Binge drinking is an alcohol consumption pattern with various psychological and cognitive consequences. As binge drinking showed qualitatively comparable cognitive impairments to those reported in alcohol-dependence, a continuum hypothesis suggests that this habit would be a first step toward alcohol-related disorders. Besides these cognitive impairments, alcohol-dependence is also characterized by large-scale deficits in emotional processing, particularly in crossmodal contexts, and these abilities have scarcely been explored in binge drinking. Emotional decoding, most often based on multiple modalities (e.g., facial expression, prosody or gesture), yet represents a crucial ability for efficient interpersonal communication and social integration. The present study is the first exploration of crossmodal emotional processing in binge drinking, in order to test whether binge drinkers already present the emotional impairments described among alcohol-dependent patients, in line with the continuum hypothesis. Twenty binge drinkers and 20 matched controls performed an experimental task requiring the identification of two emotions (happiness or anger) presented in two modalities (visual or auditory) within three conditions (unimodal, crossmodal congruent or crossmodal incongruent). In accordance with previous research in binge drinking and alcohol-dependence, this study was based on two main hypotheses. First, binge drinkers would present a reduced facilitation effect (i.e., classically indexed in healthy populations by faster reaction times when two congruent modalities are presented simultaneously). Second, binge drinkers would have higher difficulties to inhibit interference in incongruent modalities. Results showed no significant difference between groups in emotional decoding ability, whatever the modality or condition. Control participants, however, appeared slower than binge drinkers in recognizing facial expressions, also leading to a stronger facilitation effect when the two modalities were presented simultaneously. However, findings did not show a disrupted facilitation effect in binge drinkers, whom also presented preserved performance to inhibit incongruence during emotional decoding. The current results thus suggest that binge drinkers do not demonstrate a deficit for emotional processing, both in unimodal and crossmodal contexts. These results imply that binge drinking might not be characterized by impairments for the identification of primary emotions, which could also indicate that these emotional processing abilities are well-preserved at early stages of excessive alcohol consumption [less ▲]