Comparison of Alcohol Attentional Bias and Alcohol Craving Among Alcohol Abusers and Non-Abusers

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate implicit cognitive process underlying alcohol craving and relationship between alcohol attentional bias and alcohol craving by using visual probe task. Current study examined whether alcohol abusers show attentional bias toward alcohol related task compared with non- abusers and causal relationship between alcohol attentional bias and alcohol craving. Firstly, participants were divided two groups (non abusers- abusers) and they were completed alcohol craving scale to determinate their alcohol craving level. Then, participants alcohol attentional bias was investigated using the visual probe task. In this task, images (alcohol-related and neutral) were presented for 500 ms on a computer screen. After that, probe (*, asterisk) was presented. Participants were asked to decide the place of the probe place by using keyboard keys within 1500 ms. Participants reaction time and number of correct and incorrect answers during the test. According to results, alcohol abuser group’s reaction times were faster than non-abuser when probe was associated with alcohol picture but not in neutral trials. These results suggested that, alcohol abusers showed significantly greater attentional bias to alcohol related pictures than non- abusers. From this point, investigation of alcohol attentional bias might be important component of alcohol dependence in terms of the alcohol relapse risk and determination of the alcohol craving.

Keywords

• attentional bias
• alcohol
• visual probe task
• craving