How do conditioned alcohol associations promote alcohol drinking

描述（由申请人提供）：酒精与人、场所和饮酒周围的用具（线索）之间的习得关联是成功治疗酒精依赖的主要障碍;尽管努力消除这些关联，但这些关联非常持久，即使在长期戒酒后也会引发酒精渴望和复发。因此，酒精和酒精线索之间的关联构成了一个独特的治疗目标，但几乎没有临床证据表明这种关联是如何形成的，并且有限的经验支持线索对酒精消费的直接影响。这项研究的长期目标是了解酒精暗示如何与饮酒密切相关，它们对生理和行为的影响，以及它们如何促进酒精消费和酒精依赖。拟议的研究项目的目标是确定酒精和它被消费的地方之间的关联如何影响随意饮酒和行为过程的因果关系使用从头调节模型在重度饮酒者。在申请人的实验室中开发的这种新模型特别适合于研究条件性酒精关联，因为可以仔细控制对酒精和酒精配对环境的暴露，从而允许对结果进行全面分析。工作的假设是，酒精条件的线索（上下文）改变行为和主观反应的酒精介导的增加饮酒。该项目的基本原理是，关于对酒精环境的条件反应的重要知识将导致新的策略来抵消对条件酒精线索的反应，它们对行为的影响和饮酒。该假设基于申请人实验室的强有力的初步数据，将通过三个具体目标进行检验：1）在酒精配对的背景下识别情绪、行为和对酒精的主观反应，2）在酒精配对的背景下评估随意饮酒，并确定它如何与情绪、行为和对酒精的主观反应相关，3）确定酒精主观反应的个体差异如何影响酒精与环境之间条件性关联的发展。我们认为，拟议的研究计划是创新的，因为它将研究酒精和环境之间的条件关联是如何在人类中形成的，条件关联对情绪和行为的影响，以及它们对酒精消费的直接影响。这个研究项目是重要的，因为它将推进和扩大酒精和线索之间的条件关联是如何获得的，以及它们对酒精奖励，欲望和消费的影响的理解。最终，这方面的知识预计将告知新的策略和药物治疗的发展，以抵消有效的治疗方法的条件提示的反应。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Learned associations between alcohol and the people, places and paraphernalia (cues) surrounding alcohol drinking represent a major barrier to the successful treatment of alcohol dependence; these associations are remarkably persistent, despite efforts to extinguish them, and can trigger alcohol craving and relapse even after long periods of abstinence. Thus, associations between alcohol and alcohol cues constitute a unique target for treatment but there is little clinical evidence of how the associations are formed, and limited empirical support for a direct effect of cues on alcohol consumption. The long-term goal of this research is to understand how alcohol cues become powerfully linked with alcohol drinking, their influences on physiology and behavior, and how they promote alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence. The objective of the proposed research project is to determine how associations between alcohol and the places where it is consumed influence ad lib drinking and the behavioral processes underlying the causal link using a de novo conditioning model in heavy drinkers. This novel model, developed in the applicants' laboratory, is particularly well-suited to studying conditioned alcohol associations because exposure to alcohol and alcohol-paired environments can be carefully controlled allowing a comprehensive analysis of the results. The working hypothesis is that alcohol conditioned cues (contexts) alter behavior and subjective responses to alcohol which mediate an increase in drinking. The rationale for the project is that vital knowledge regarding conditioned responses to alcohol contexts will lead to novel strategies to counteract responses to conditioned alcohol cues, their influence on behavior, and alcohol drinking. The hypothesis, based upon strong preliminary data from the applicants' laboratory, will be tested by three specific aims: 1) Identify mood, behavior and subjective responses to alcohol in the alcohol-paired context, 2) Assess ad lib alcohol drinking in the alcohol-paired context and determine how it is related to mood, behavior and subjective responses to alcohol, and 3) Determine how individual differences in alcohol subjective response influence the development of conditioned associations between alcohol and contexts. We believe that the proposed plan of research is innovative because it will examine how conditioned associations between alcohol and contexts are formed in humans, the influence of the conditioned associations on mood and behavior, and their direct effect on alcohol consumption. This research project is significant because it will advance and expand understanding of how conditioned associations between alcohol and cues are acquired and of their influences on alcohol reward, wanting and consumption. Ultimately this knowledge is expected to inform the development of novel strategies and pharmacotherapies to counteract responses to the conditioned cues in effective treatment approaches.