Alcohol-related stimuli modulate functional connectivity during response inhibition in young binge drinkers.

Binge drinking is a pattern of intermittent excessive alcohol consumption that is highly prevalent in young people. Neurocognitive dual-process models have described substance abuse and adolescence risk behaviours as the result of an imbalance between an overactivated affective-automatic system (related to motivational processing) and damaged and/or immature reflective system (related to cognitive control abilities). Previous studies have evaluated the reflective system of binge drinkers (BDs) through neutral response inhibition tasks and have reported anomalies in theta (4-8 Hz) and beta (12-30 Hz) bands. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of the motivational value of alcohol-related stimuli on brain functional networks devoted to response inhibition in young BDs. Sixty eight BDs and 78 control participants performed a beverage Go/NoGo task while undergoing electrophysiological recording. Whole cortical brain functional connectivity (FC) was evaluated during successful response inhibition trials (NoGo). BDs exhibited fast-beta and theta hyperconnectivity in regions related to cognitive control. These responses were modulated differently depending on the motivational content of the stimuli. The increased salience of alcohol-related stimuli may lead to overactivation of the affective-automatic system in BDs, and compensatory neural resources of the reflective system will thus be required during response inhibition. In BDs, inhibition of the response to alcohol stimuli may require higher theta FC to facilitate integration of information related to the task goal (withholding a response), while during inhibition of the response to no-alcoholic stimuli, higher fast-beta FC would allow to apply top-down inhibitory control of the information related to the prepotent response.

Physical Exercise to Redynamize Interoception in Substance use Disorders.

Physical exercise is considered a promising medication-free and cost-effective adjunct treatment for substance use disorders (SUD). Nevertheless, evidence regarding the effectiveness of these interventions is currently limited, thereby signaling the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying their impact on SUD, in order to reframe and optimize them. Here we advance that physical exercise could be re-conceptualized as an "interoception booster", namely as a way to help people with SUD to better decode and interpret bodily-related signals associated with transient states of homeostatic imbalances that usually trigger consumption. We first discuss how mismatches between current and desired bodily states influence the formation of reward-seeking states in SUD, in light of the insular cortex brain networks. Next, we detail effort perception during physical exercise and discuss how it can be used as a relevant framework for re-dynamizing interoception in SUD. We conclude by providing perspectives and methodological considerations for applying the proposed approach to mixed-design neurocognitive research on SUD.

Neurostructural features predict binge drinking in emerging adulthood: Evidence from a 5-year follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: Binge drinking (BD) involves consuming large amounts of alcohol within a short timeframe, leading to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08g/dL or above. This pattern of alcohol consumption is prevalent among young adults and has significant implications for brain structure and subsequent drinking behaviors. METHODS: In this prospective longitudinal study, we employed zero-inflated negative binomial regression models to examine whether various neurostructural features (i.e., volume, surface area, cortical thickness) of brain regions involved in executive and emotional/motivational processes at the age of 18-19 could predict number of BD episodes five years later, at ages 23-24, once participants were expected to complete their university degree. Specifically, we recorded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 68 students who completed both the baseline MRI and follow-up alcohol use assessment, with the aim of analyzing the predictive value of these neurostructural characteristics five years later. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that a larger surface area in the caudal division of the right middle frontal gyrus was significantly associated with a higher incidence rate of BD episodes (IRR = 2.24, 95 % CI = 1.28-3.91, p = 0.005). Conversely, a smaller surface area in the right caudal anterior cingulate cortex was associated with a higher incidence rate of BD episodes (IRR = 0.61, 95 % CI = 0.44-0.85, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that specific neurostructural characteristics during adolescence can predict BD behaviors in young adulthood. This highlights the potential of neuroimaging to identify individuals at risk for developing problematic alcohol use.

Tell me how you feel, I will tell you what you look at: Impact of mood and craving on alcohol attentional bias in binge drinking.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol-related attentional bias (AB) is thought to play a key role in the emergence and maintenance of excessive alcohol use. Recent models suggest that AB, classically considered as a permanent feature in alcohol use disorders, is rather modulated by temporary motivational states. AIMS: We explored the influence of current mood and craving on AB in binge drinking, through a mood induction procedure combined with eye-tracking measures of AB. METHODS: In Experiment 1, we measured AB (visual probe task with eye-tracking measures) among binge drinkers (n = 48) and light drinkers (n = 32) following positive, negative and neutral mood inductions. Participants reported subjective craving and mood before/after induction. In Experiment 2, we measured AB among the same binge drinkers compared with 29 moderate drinkers following alcohol-related negative, non-alcohol-related negative and neutral mood inductions. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, induced negative mood and group positively predicted subjective craving, which was positively associated with AB. We found no effect of induced positive mood nor a direct mood-AB association. In Experiment 2, the relationships AB presented with both induced negative mood and group were again mediated by craving. Inducing alcohol-related negative mood did not modify the mood-craving association. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol-related AB is not a stable binge drinking characteristic but rather varies according to transient motivational (i.e., craving) and emotional (i.e., negative mood) states. This study provides important insights to better understand AB in subclinical populations and emphasizes the importance of considering motivational and affective states as intercorrelated, to offer multiple ways to reduce excessive alcohol use.

Effects of binge drinking during adolescence and emerging adulthood on the brain: A systematic review of neuroimaging studies.

Binge drinking (BD) is a common pattern of alcohol consumption which is generating great concern because of its deleterious consequences. We selected 33 neuroimaging studies of healthy young binge drinkers (BDs) by following PRISMA guidelines. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between BD and neurocognitive anomalies reported across magnetic resonance studies. Moreover, this work is the first in which results of relatively new imaging techniques, such as resting-state functional connectivity (RS-FC) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), have been reviewed using a systematic procedure. We established strict inclusion criteria in order to isolate the various potential effects of BD on the adolescent brain. Two authors independently evaluated the methodological quality, assessing different aspects related to sample size, and statistical correction methods, which are of particular importance in neuroimaging studies. BD is associated with structural and functional anomalies in several cortical and subcortical brain regions intimately involved in the control and regulation of impulsive or risky behaviours, as well as in the processing of reinforcing stimuli.

Effects of Persistent Binge Drinking on Brain Structure in Emerging Adults: A Longitudinal Study.

Previous cross-sectional research has largely associated binge drinking (BD) with changes in volume and thickness during adolescence and early adulthood. Nevertheless, the long-term alcohol-related effects on gray matter features in youths who had maintained a BD pattern over time have not yet been sufficiently explored. The present study aimed to assess group differences both cross-sectionally and longitudinally [using symmetric percent change (SPC)] on several structural measures (i.e., thickness, surface area, volume). For this purpose, magnetic resonance imaging was recorded twice within a 2-year interval; at baseline (18-19 years) and a follow-up (20-21 years). The sample included 44 university students who were classified as 16 stable binge drinkers (8 females) and 28 stable controls (13 females). Whole-brain analysis showed larger insular surface area in binge drinkers relative to controls at follow-up (cluster-wise p = 0.045). On the other hand, region of interest (ROI) analyses on thickness also revealed a group by sex interaction at follow-up (p = 0.005), indicating that BD males had smaller right rostral middle frontal gyrus thickness than both control males (p = 0.011) and BD females (p = 0.029). Similarly, ROI-based analysis on longitudinal data showed a group by sex interaction in the right nucleus accumbens (p = 0.009) which revealed a decreased volume across time in BD males than in control males (p = 0.007). Overall, continued BD pattern during emerging adulthood appears to lead to gray matter abnormalities in regions intimately involved in reward processing, emotional regulation and executive functions. Notably, some anomalies varied significantly depending on sex, suggesting a sex-specific impact of BD on typical neurodevelopment processes.

Response Inhibition and Binge Drinking During Transition to University: An fMRI Study.

BACKGROUND: Binge Drinking (BD), a highly prevalent drinking pattern among youth, has been linked with anomalies in inhibitory control. However, it is still not well characterized whether the neural mechanisms involved in this process are compromised in binge drinkers (BDs). Furthermore, recent findings suggest that exerting inhibitory control to alcohol-related stimuli requires an increased effort in BDs, relative to controls, but the brain regions subserving these effects have also been scarcely investigated. Here we explored the impact of BD on the pattern of neural activity mediating response inhibition and its modulation by the motivational salience of stimuli (alcohol-related content). METHODS: Sixty-seven (36 females) first-year university students, classified as BDs (n = 32) or controls (n = 35), underwent fMRI as they performed an alcohol-cued Go/NoGo task in which pictures of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages were presented as Go or NoGo stimuli. RESULTS: During successful inhibition trials, BDs relative to controls showed greater activity in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), extending to the anterior insula, a brain region usually involved in response inhibition tasks, despite the lack of behavioral differences between groups. Moreover, BDs displayed increased activity in this region restricted to the right hemisphere when inhibiting a prepotent response to alcohol-related stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: The increased neural activity in the IFG/insula during response inhibition in BDs, in the absence of behavioral impairments, could reflect a compensatory mechanism. The findings suggest that response inhibition-related activity in the right IFG/insula is modulated by the motivational salience of stimuli and highlight the role of this brain region in suppressing responses to substance-associated cues.

Punishment-related memory-guided attention: Neural dynamics of perceptual modulation.

Remembering the outcomes of past experiences allows us to generate future expectations and shape selection in the long-term. A growing number of studies has shown that learned positive reward values impact spatial memory-based attentional biases on perception. However, whether memory-driven attentional biases extend to punishment-related values has received comparatively less attention. Here, we manipulated whether recent spatial contextual memories became associated with successful avoidance of punishment (potential monetary loss). Behavioral and electrophysiological measures were collected from 27 participants during a subsequent memory-based attention task, in which we tested for the effect of punishment avoidance associations. Punishment avoidance significantly amplified effects of spatial contextual memories on visual search processes within natural scenes. Compared to non-associated scenes, contextual memories paired with punishment avoidance lead to faster responses to targets presented at remembered locations. Event-related potentials elicited by target stimuli revealed that acquired motivational value of specific spatial locations, by virtue of their association with past avoidance of punishment, dynamically affected neural signatures of early visual processing (indexed by larger P1 and earlier N1 potentials) and target selection (as indicated by reduced N2pc potentials). The present results extend our understanding of how memory, attention, and punishment-related mechanisms interact to optimize perceptual decision in real world environments.