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Association of Drinking Problems and Duration of Alcohol Use to Inhibitory Control in Nondependent Young Adult Social Drinkers
Author(s) -
Hu Sien,
Zhang Sheng,
Chao Herta H.,
Krystal John H.,
Li ChiangShan R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.12964
Subject(s) - stop signal , alcohol use disorders identification test , functional magnetic resonance imaging , inferior frontal gyrus , alcohol , psychology , superior temporal gyrus , alcohol dependence , alcohol use disorder , poison control , mediation , audiology , medicine , neuroscience , injury prevention , biology , biochemistry , environmental health , electrical engineering , engineering , latency (audio) , political science , law
Background Deficits in inhibitory control have been widely implicated in alcohol misuse. However, the literature does not readily distinguish the effects of drinking problems and chronic alcohol use. Here, we examined how years of drinking and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test ( AUDIT ) score each influences the cerebral responses to inhibitory control in nondependent drinkers. Methods Fifty‐seven adult drinkers and 57 age‐ and gender‐matched nondrinkers participated in one 40‐minute functional magnetic resonance imaging scan of the stop signal task. Data were preprocessed and modeled using SPM 8. In a regression model, we contrasted stop and go success trials for individuals and examined activities of response inhibition each in link with the AUDIT score and years of alcohol use in group analyses. We specified the effects of duration of use by contrasting regional activations of drinkers and age‐related changes in nondrinkers. In mediation analyses, we investigated how regional activities mediate the relationship between drinking problems and response inhibition. Results Higher AUDIT score but not years of drinking was positively correlated with prolonged stop signal reaction time ( SSRT ) and diminished responses in the cerebellum, thalamus, frontal and parietal regions, independent of years of alcohol use. Further, activity of the thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex, and presupplementary motor area significantly mediates the association, bidirectionally, between the AUDIT score and SSRT . The duration of alcohol use was associated with decreased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus extending to superior temporal gyrus, which was not observed for age‐related changes in nondrinkers. Conclusions The results distinguished the association of drinking problems and years of alcohol use to inhibitory control in young adult nondependent drinkers. These new findings extend the imaging literature of alcohol misuse and may have implications for treatment to prevent the escalation from social to dependent drinking. More research is needed to confirm age‐independent neural correlates of years of alcohol use.