Schedule of Events | Symposia

Similarities and differences in alcohol consumption and neural responses to alcohol images in underaged and legal-aged college students

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Madison Risner¹, Chloe Davis¹, Justice Corbett¹, Alex Garcia¹, Amelya Rivera¹, Idali Casas¹, Caydin Hazziez¹, Natalie Ceballos¹, Reiko Graham¹; ¹Texas State University

This study examined legal drinking age, alcohol-related attitudes and consumption, and neural responses. Thirty students completed surveys assessing alcohol-related attitudes/behaviors and a go/no-go task while EEG was recorded. The task had 2 runs: in one, respond to alcohol images, withhold responses to non-alcoholic ones; in the other, contingencies were reversed. Afterwards, participants wore a transdermal alcohol sensor for 12 days. Differences in alcohol-related behaviors/attitudes in underaged (n = 17) and legal drinkers (n = 13) were compared. Next, ANOVAs focused on the latencies/amplitudes of the N2 and P3 with drinking status, stimulus (alcohol vs. non-alcohol), and response (go vs. no-go) as factors. Groups did not differ in consumption patterns or attitudes and had the same proportion of regular drinkers with similar ages of onset (17.9 underage vs. 18.8 years legal). N2 latencies did not differ due to group, stimulus, or go/no-go status, but amplitudes were enhanced during alcohol no-go relative to go trials (but not non-alcohol trials). The P3 peaked later during no-go trials, but only for underage drinkers. It was also delayed for alcohol no-go vs. go trials (not non-alcoholic), regardless of legal status. P3 amplitudes were larger for no-go vs. go trials, regardless of group and P3 amplitudes to alcohol were enhanced in underaged drinkers, regardless of go/no-go status. Although preliminary, results indicate more similarities than differences in underaged and legal drinkers in alcohol consumption, attitudes, and neural correlates, suggesting that these are established prior to university. Differences may be due to taboos associated with underaged drinking.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions