Schedule of Events | Symposia

Attention to hedonic stimuli in problematic alcohol consumption: a pilot study in a non-clinical population.

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Lucia Alba-Ferrara¹ (lucia.alba@fultra.org), Juan Ignacio Segura, Guillermina Alvarez, Bautista Elizalde Acevedo, Ana Paula Colombini; ¹ENyS-CONICET, ²Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Austral

Objective: Identify the neural basis of inhibitory control in response to hedonic stimuli in problem drinkers, which may underlie mechanisms of problematic alcohol consumption. Methodology: 24 participants underwent an fMRI scan during a dichotic listening task. During the scanning session, two stimuli were presented simultaneously on each ear; one alcohol-related (I.e. uncorking a bottle) and one unrelated (I.e. hoovering). Participants were asked to focus their attention on one ear and respond whether the attended sound was alcohol related. We considered two trial types: Bottom-Up (alcohol related stimulus in the attended ear) and Top-Down (alcohol-related stimulus in the ignored ear). We measured alcohol consumption with the AUDIT scale. Results: All participants performed above chance level. Response times for Bottom-up trials were significantly shorter that Top-down trials. Bottom-up trials activated the Right Angular Gyrus, Right Precentral Gyrus, Left Middle Frontal Gyrus and Right Superior Parietal Gyrus; while Top-down trials activated the Left Postcentral Gyrus, Right Parahippocampal Gyrus, Right Cerebellum, Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC), Right Superior and Left Inferior Temporal Gyrus, and Right Precentral Gyrus. Discussion: Top-down trials possess higher cognitive demand, as they require the subject to ignore the distracting hedonic stimulus. This explains the activation of the DLPFC. The absence of this activation in Bottom-up trials suggests a decrease in cognitive demand and control, provoked by the involuntary capture of attention by the hedonic stimulus. The DLPFC may underlie a necessary control mechanism that inhibits behaviour directed to alcohol search.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory