Error detection and behavioural inhibition in young heavy drinkers.

BACKGROUND: Increases in inhibitory errors in heavy drinkers are established; less well-studied is whether heavy drinkers are aware of these errors in performance. Reductions in error detection and awareness limit the possibility for remedial action to be taken, and have implications for substance abusers seeking to control use: failure to monitor and/or adjust ongoing behaviour may be linked to using more or more often than intended, and failing to adjust behaviour after a slip. Here we report the first study of both inhibitory control and error awareness in young heavy drinkers, using behavioural and psychophysiological measures. METHODS: Heavy drinkers (n=25) and light- or non-drinking controls (n=35) completed a difficult inhibitory task which required signaling the awareness of inhibitory errors on the subsequent trial, while brain electrical activity was recorded. RESULTS: Heavy drinkers made more inhibitory errors than controls, but we observed no difference in error awareness, both via overt signaling and with equivalent amplitude of the error positivity (Pe), indexing conscious error detection. Similarly, controls and heavy drinkers showed no difference in amplitude or latency of the error-related negativity (ERN), indexing early pre-conscious error detection. CONCLUSIONS: This research suggests no significant difference in detection of errors in heavy drinkers, even as they are more prone to make these errors, a result seen in dependent drinkers reported elsewhere. Future research with larger sample sizes, and a more difficult task producing sufficient errors, should determine whether heavy drinkers employ sufficient post-error remedial action.

The awareness of social inference test: development of a shortened version for use in adults with acquired brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) is an ecologically valid test of complex social perception. Despite its utility for detecting social perception deficits in clinical groups, its lengthy administration time has limited its routine use in clinical practice. This paper describes the development and validation of a shortened version of the TASIT (TASIT-S) in 160 individuals (males = 129) with moderate to severe acquired brain injury (ABI). METHOD: Both Rasch and confirmatory factor analysis modeling were used to create the TASIT-S, which, consistent with the original test, included the following subtests: (1) Emotion Evaluation Test (10 items), assessing basic emotion recognition; (2) Social Inference (Minimal) Test (9 items), assessing understanding of sincere and sarcastic exchanges; and (3) Social Inference (Enriched) Test (9 items), assessing comprehension of lies and sarcasm. RESULTS: The TASIT-S demonstrated excellent construct validity as evidenced by its high correlations with the original TASIT and correlations with social cognition and cognitive neuropsychological measures. Importantly, the TASIT-S also successfully differentiated between ABI participants and healthy controls (n = 43). CONCLUSIONS: The new shortened version of the TASIT is a promising new tool with excellent psychometric properties that can assist clinicians with the detection of complex social perception deficits in ABI.

Female but not male young heavy drinkers display altered performance monitoring.

Difficulties in monitoring ongoing behaviour may be linked to real-life problematic drinking behaviours. Prior research suggests female heavy drinkers in particular display greater cognitive control deficits. Here, we examine trial-to-trial behavioural adaptations in a conflict monitoring task, relative to drinking behaviour and sex. Heavy drinkers (n=31, 16 male) and controls (n=35, 18 male) completed an Eriksen flanker task while brain electrical activity was recorded. For reaction time, error rates, and N2 and P3 amplitude of the event-related potential, trial-to-trial conflict adaptation was evidenced by a differential response to the current (congruent vs. incongruent) trials dependent on the identity of the previous trial. For the proportion of errors, heavy drinkers showed increased conflict adaptation compared to controls. Conflict adaptation for N2 (indexing monitoring) was larger for female heavy drinkers than controls, and the opposite was observed for males. There were no interactions involving group or sex for the P3 (indexing inhibition). The results suggest a compensatory response, such that heavy drinkers are required to increase performance monitoring in order to achieve the same behavioural outcome as controls. We also confirm the importance of sex as a factor in the relationship between behavioural control and heavy alcohol use.