Title |
Neural Correlates of Alcohol-Approach Bias in Alcohol Addiction: the Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak for Spirits
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Published in |
Neuropsychopharmacology, September 2013
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DOI | 10.1038/npp.2013.252 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Corinde E Wiers, Christine Stelzel, Soyoung Q Park, Christiane K Gawron, Vera U Ludwig, Stefan Gutwinski, Andreas Heinz, Johannes Lindenmeyer, Reinout W Wiers, Henrik Walter, Felix Bermpohl |
Abstract |
Behavioral studies have shown an alcohol-approach bias in alcohol-dependent patients: the automatic tendency to faster approach than avoid alcohol compared with neutral cues, which has been associated with craving and relapse. Although this is a well-studied psychological phenomenon, little is known about the brain processes underlying automatic action tendencies in addiction. We examined 20 alcohol-dependent patients and 17 healthy controls with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while performing an implicit approach-avoidance task. Participants pushed and pulled pictorial cues of alcohol and soft-drink beverages, according to a content-irrelevant feature of the cue (landscape/portrait). The critical fMRI contrast regarding the alcohol-approach bias was defined as (approach alcohol>avoid alcohol)>(approach soft drink>avoid soft drink). This was reversed for the avoid-alcohol contrast: (avoid alcohol>approach alcohol)>(avoid soft drink>approach soft drink). In comparison with healthy controls, alcohol-dependent patients had stronger behavioral approach tendencies for alcohol cues than for soft-drink cues. In the approach, alcohol fMRI contrast patients showed larger blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses in the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex, regions involved in reward and motivational processing. In alcohol-dependent patients, alcohol-craving scores were positively correlated with activity in the amygdala for the approach-alcohol contrast. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was not activated in the avoid-alcohol contrast in patients vs controls. Our data suggest that brain regions that have a key role in reward and motivation are associated with the automatic alcohol-approach bias in alcohol-dependent patients. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Netherlands | 1 | 50% |
Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 2 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Germany | 4 | 2% |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | 2 | <1% |
South Africa | 1 | <1% |
Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 194 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 43 | 21% |
Student > Master | 36 | 18% |
Researcher | 34 | 17% |
Student > Bachelor | 13 | 6% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 11 | 5% |
Other | 30 | 15% |
Unknown | 37 | 18% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
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Psychology | 90 | 44% |
Neuroscience | 18 | 9% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 18 | 9% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 11 | 5% |
Social Sciences | 5 | 2% |
Other | 14 | 7% |
Unknown | 48 | 24% |