Cognitive control deficits in alcoholism risk

描述(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，性和其他冒险，情绪反应的改变，甚至明显的暂时失去对酒精使用本身的控制。酒精中毒导致这些失调反应的许多例子的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，酒精依赖者经常经历围绕其酒精使用的冲突或矛盾心理，初步证据表明，他们的注意力功能可能受到损害，这是自适应地解决围绕其酒精使用的冲突所必需的。事实上，许多理论家推测，同样的注意力机制，解释了酒精挑战的急性影响，可能也会在患有药物使用和其他外化障碍的个人中长期受损。此外，注意力受损可能是一种发病前的病因风险机制，这是有酗酒家族史的个人患酒精使用障碍风险增加的原因。本研究的目的是确认和澄清酒精挑战和酗酒家族史对注意功能的影响的性质，并检验潜在的损害对行为和情绪反应的调节的后果。最近的理论和基础认知神经科学研究已经显著进步和完善，对注意过程和潜在的神经生物学结构的理解是冲突期间行为和情绪反应的适应性调节所必需的。这项基础研究已经确定了注意系统的离散功能，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(和子组成部分；评估性和调节性控制)对于克服环境适应不良、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注意功能的研究奠定了基础。这五个拟议的实验将使用电生理测量(例如，与事件相关的大脑电位)和经过充分验证的认知范式，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酒精中毒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.