Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on saccadic conflict and error processing

Rationale Flexible behavior optimization relies on cognitive control which includes the ability to suppress automatic responses interfering with relevant goals. Extensive evidence suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the central node in a predominantly frontal cortical network subser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychopharmacology 2013-12, Vol.230 (3), p.487-497
Main Authors: Marinkovic, Ksenija, Rickenbacher, Elizabeth, Azma, Sheeva, Artsy, Elinor, Lee, Adrian K. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute intoxication
Adult
Alcoholic Intoxication - physiopathology
Alcoholism
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - drug effects
Conflict (Psychology)
Drunkenness
Eye movements
Female
Gyrus Cinguli - drug effects
Gyrus Cinguli - metabolism
Humans
Inhibition (Psychology)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Nervous system
Neuroimaging
Neurosciences
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Original Investigation
Pharmacology/Toxicology
Physiological aspects
Prefrontal cortex
Psychiatry
Saccades - drug effects
Self control
Spin Labels
Young Adult
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Summary:Rationale Flexible behavior optimization relies on cognitive control which includes the ability to suppress automatic responses interfering with relevant goals. Extensive evidence suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the central node in a predominantly frontal cortical network subserving executive tasks. Neuroimaging studies indicate that the ACC is sensitive to acute intoxication during conflict, but such evidence is limited to tasks using manual responses with arbitrary response contingencies. Objectives The present study was designed to examine whether alcohol's effects on top–down cognitive control would generalize to the oculomotor system during inhibition of hardwired saccadic responses. Methods Healthy social drinkers ( N  = 22) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning and eye movement tracking during alcohol (0.6 g/kg ethanol for men, 0.55 g/kg for women) and placebo conditions in a counterbalanced design. They performed visually guided prosaccades (PS) towards a target and volitional antisaccades (AS) away from it. To mitigate possible vasoactive effects of alcohol on the BOLD (blood oxygenation level-dependent) signal, resting perfusion was quantified with arterial spin labeling (ASL) and used as a covariate in the BOLD analysis. Results Saccadic conflict was subserved by a distributed frontoparietal network. However, alcohol intoxication selectively attenuated activity only in the ACC to volitional AS and erroneous responses. Conclusions This study provides converging evidence for the selective ACC vulnerability to alcohol intoxication during conflict across different response modalities and executive tasks, confirming its supramodal, high-level role in cognitive control. Alcohol intoxication may impair top–down regulative functions by attenuating the ACC activity, resulting in behavioral disinhibition and decreased self-control.
ISSN:0033-3158
1432-2072
DOI:10.1007/s00213-013-3173-y