Does binge drinking change how the brain resists emotional distraction?
College freshmen who binge drank more often showed weaker activation in frontal control regions when they had to hold back a response while upsetting images were in the background, even though their task performance looked normal.
Source
College Binge Drinking Associated with Decreased Frontal Activation to Negative Emotional Distractors during Inhibitory Control
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Single-session fMRI study: an emotional Go-NoGo task manipulated background image valence within subjects, and brain activation was correlated with each person's number of binges in the past 3 months
- N
- N=23 · 23 healthy college freshmen spanning non-drinkers to heavy drinkers
- Population
- College freshmen aged 18-20 at a 4-year program in the United States, mostly female, screened for heavy drug use
- Outcome
- BOLD activation on NoGo trials with negative or positive vs neutral backgrounds; its correlation with past-3-month binge episodes; Go/NoGo accuracy and reaction time
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What they did
Twenty-three first-year college students, ranging from non-drinkers to heavy drinkers, completed a Go-NoGo task in an fMRI scanner: they pressed a button for every letter except X, while letters appeared on top of negative, positive, neutral or scrambled photographs. Binge drinking over the previous 3 months was measured with a calendar-based interview. The researchers compared brain activity on NoGo trials with emotional versus neutral backgrounds and tested whether that activity varied with the number of binges.
What they found
Negative backgrounds slowed responses and, across the whole sample, increased activation in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and left lateral prefrontal cortex compared with neutral backgrounds; positive backgrounds did not engage prefrontal regions or the ventral striatum as predicted. More binges in the past 3 months were linked to less activation in right dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate during negative-versus-neutral NoGo trials. No such link appeared for positive distractors, and drinking was not related to task accuracy, reaction time or self-reported impulsivity.
The limits
What it doesn't show
With 23 participants measured at a single time point, the study shows an association, not that binge drinking causes reduced frontal activation; the pattern could reflect pre-existing differences, alcohol effects or adaptation, and the authors note longitudinal follow-up is under way. Because Go trials were not modelled separately, the design cannot directly compare inhibition with ordinary responding within each background. Few males took part and they tended to be light drinkers, so sex differences could not be examined. The brain differences occurred without any behavioural impairment, so their practical significance is unclear.
Key terms
- Binge drinking
- Drinking enough in one occasion to reach heavy levels; here defined as 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more for men.
- Go-NoGo task
- A task in which people respond quickly to frequent 'go' stimuli but must withhold the response to a rare 'no-go' stimulus, measuring response inhibition.
- Emotional distractor
- Task-irrelevant emotional content, such as an upsetting photo, that competes for attention while a person performs another task.
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
- A lateral frontal region involved in executive control, such as maintaining goals and regulating responses.
- Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
- A medial frontal region linked to monitoring conflict and errors and signalling when more control is needed.
- Negative urgency
- The tendency to act rashly when experiencing negative emotions, a trait linked to risk for alcohol problems.
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Quiz yourself
Which brain regions showed less activation with more binge drinking?
Common questions
If binge drinkers performed the task just as well, why do the brain differences matter?
The authors suggest the brain differences may be an early sign of reduced control-system engagement that has not yet shown up in behaviour, or may reflect compensation; either way they could mark risk for later self-regulation problems.
Why use emotional pictures in an inhibition task?
Drinkers are thought to be especially impulsive during strong emotions, so pairing inhibition with emotional backgrounds is a closer test of the situations where binge drinking may happen.
Why did positive images have little effect?
The authors suggest the positive images may not have been rewarding enough or distracting enough during a demanding task, so they placed fewer demands on control regions.
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