Cognitive control deficits in alcoholism risk

描述（由申请人提供）：急性酒精中毒经常导致各种形式的失调反应，包括攻击性、性行为和其他冒险行为、情绪反应的改变，甚至明显暂时失去对酒精使用本身的控制。在许多酒精中毒导致这些失调反应的例子中，其特点是强烈但不适当的反应倾向与适应性更强但更弱的不相容的替代反应之间的冲突。同样，酒精依赖者在酒精使用过程中经常经历冲突或矛盾心理，初步证据表明，他们的注意力功能可能受损，而这种功能是适应性地解决酒精使用过程中的冲突所必需的。事实上，许多理论家推测，导致酒精挑战急性效应的同样的注意力机制，也可能在物质使用和其他外化障碍的个体中长期受损。此外，注意力受损可能是一种发病前的病因风险机制，可以解释有酗酒家族史的个体出现酒精使用障碍的风险增加。本研究的目的是确认和澄清酒精挑战和酒精家族史对注意功能影响的本质，并检查潜在损害对行为和情绪反应调节的影响。最近的理论和基础认知神经科学研究显著地推进和完善了对冲突中行为和情绪反应的适应性调节所必需的注意过程和潜在神经生物学结构的理解。这项基础研究已经确定了注意力系统的离散功能，包括维持警觉状态、感觉定向和负责控制认知操作的执行控制功能。特别是，执行控制注意（及其子组成部分；评估和调节控制）对于克服情境不适应、强烈和/或习惯性反应至关重要。这一理论和研究为醉酒和家族史阳性个体的注意功能研究提供了基础。这五个实验将使用电生理测量（例如，事件相关的脑电位）和经过验证的认知范式，旨在系统地索引注意力功能的离散组成部分。这将允许中介测试来确定预测的酒精挑战和酗酒家族史对行为和情绪调节的影响是否是注意力功能受损的结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Acute alcohol intoxication frequently results in various forms of dysregulated responding including aggression, sexual and other risk taking, alterations in emotional response, and even apparent temporary loss of control over alcohol use itself. Many examples in which alcohol intoxication results in these dysregulated responses are characterized by conflict between strong, but inappropriate, response tendencies and incompatible alternative responses that are more adaptive yet weaker. Similarly, alcohol dependent users frequently experience conflict or ambivalence surrounding their alcohol use and preliminary evidence suggests that they may be impaired in the attention functions that are necessary to adaptively resolve conflict surrounding their alcohol use. In fact, many theorists have speculated that the same attention mechanisms that account for the acute effects of alcohol challenge may also be chronically impaired in individuals with substance use and other externalizing disorders. Moreover, impaired attention may represent a premorbid etiological risk mechanism which accounts for the increased risk for alcohol use disorders among individuals with a family history of alcoholism. The aim of this research is to confirm and clarify the nature of alcohol challenge and alcoholism family history effects on attention function and to examine the consequences of potential impairment for the regulation of behavior and emotion responding. Recent theory and basic cognitive neuroscience research has significantly advanced and refined , understanding about the attention processes and underlying neurobiological structures that are necessary for the adaptive regulation of behavior and emotional response during conflict. This basic research has identified discrete functions of the attention system including maintenance of an alert state, sensory orienting, and executive control function responsible for the control of cognitive operations. In particular, executive control attention (and sub-components; evaluative and regulative control) are crucial to overcome contextually maladaptive, strong and/or habitual responding. This theory and research provides the foundation for the proposed research on attention function in intoxicated and family history positive individuals. The five proposed experiments will use electro-physiological measures (e.g., event related brain potentials) and well-validated cognitive paradigms designed to systematically index discrete components of attention function. This will allow mediation tests to determine if predicted alcohol challenge and family history of alcoholism effects on behavior and emotion regulation are the result of impaired attention function.