Role of environmental conditioning in responses to alcohol in humans

描述（由申请人提供）：酒精和饮酒发生的地方（称为上下文条件反射）之间的学习关联在酒精滥用和成瘾的每个阶段都很重要。即使在长时间的禁欲之后，环境条件也会引发渴望和复发。它还可能通过增强酒精的主观奖励效应来影响饮酒，并且它可能通过损害酒精条件环境中行为的认知控制来导致对饮酒的失控。因此，了解条件反射的发展和持续性对于开发有效的酒精滥用治疗方法至关重要。在我们的实验室中，我们已经开发了一个模型来测量人类的背景药物协会。在这里，我们将使用该模型来研究如何在健康的适度饮酒者中建立与酒精的上下文关联，它们如何影响对酒精的急性主观反应，以及它们如何改变吸毒环境中的认知行为。目标1将评估与安慰剂相比，受试者对一个持续饮酒的地方的条件性喜欢。目标2将研究在一致的环境中饮酒如何改变酒精的急性主观影响。目标3将评估工作记忆和反应抑制在一个地方与酒精消费配对相对于一个地方与安慰剂配对。这项研究的数据将提供一个更好的理解酒精如何与它被消费的地方，以及环境条件反射可能会影响在环境中饮酒的机制。然后，这些信息可以用于设计旨在打破这些关联或抑制其影响的治疗方法，以减少过度饮酒和复发。 公共卫生相关性：饮酒者与他们饮酒的地方形成了强有力的联系。这些关联影响酒精滥用和成瘾的所有阶段，并代表了治疗的独特目标，但尚未在人类中进行详细研究。该项目将研究酒精与人类消费环境之间条件性关联的形成，并研究其对酒精反应和认知行为的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Learned associations between alcohol and the places where drinking occurs (called contextual conditioning) are important at every stage of alcohol abuse and addiction. Contextual conditioning can trigger craving and relapse even after long periods of abstinence. It may also influence drinking by potentiating the subjectively rewarding effects of alcohol, and it may contribute to a loss of control over drinking by impairing the cognitive control of behavior in the alcohol conditioned environment. Thus, an understanding of the development and persistence of conditioning is essential to developing effective treatments for alcohol abuse. In our laboratory, we have developed a model to measure contextual drug associations in humans. Here, we will use the model to study how contextual associations with alcohol are established in healthy moderate drinkers, how they influence acute subjective responses to alcohol, and how they alter cognitive behaviors in the drug-taking environment. Aim 1 will assess conditioned liking of a place where participants consistently consumed alcohol, compared to placebo. Aim 2 will investigate how the acute subjective effects of alcohol are changed by consumption in a consistent environment. Aim 3 will assess working memory and response inhibition in a place paired with alcohol consumption relative to a place paired with placebo. Data from this study will provide a better understanding of how alcohol becomes associated with the places where it is consumed and the mechanisms by which contextual conditioning could influence drinking in the environment. This information can then be applied to design treatments aimed at breaking these associations or dampening their effects to reduce excessive drinking and relapse. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Drinkers form powerful associations with the places where they consume alcohol. These associations influence all stages of alcohol abuse and addiction and represent a unique target for treatment, but they have not been studied in detail in humans. This project will examine the formation of conditioned associations between alcohol and the context in which it is consumed in humans, and study their effects upon responses to alcohol and cognitive behavior.