Dataset Information

High versus low level of response to alcohol: evidence of differential reactivity to emotional stimuli.

ABSTRACT: The low level of response (LR) or sensitivity to alcohol is genetically influenced and predicts heavy drinking and alcohol problems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using cognitive tasks suggest that subjects with a low-LR process cognitive information differently after placebo and alcohol than those with a high LR, but no studies have evaluated whether similar LR group differences are seen during an emotional processing task.The fMRI data were gathered from 116 nonalcoholic subjects (60 women) after oral placebo or approximately .7 mL/kg of ethanol while performing a modified emotional faces processing task. These included 58 low- and high-LR pairs matched on demography and aspects of substance use.Blood alcohol levels and task performance were similar across LR groups, but low-LR subjects consumed approximately .8 drinks more/occasion. Thirteen brain regions (mostly the middle and inferior frontal gyri, cingulate, and insula) showed significant LR group or LR × placebo/alcohol condition interactions for emotional (mostly happy) faces relative to non-face trials. Low-LR subjects generally showed decreasing blood-oxygen level-dependent response contrasts across placebo to alcohol, whereas high LR showed increasing contrasts from placebo to alcohol, even after controlling for drinking quantities and alcohol-related changes in cerebral blood flow.Thus, LR group fMRI differences are as prominent during an emotional face task as during cognitive paradigms. Low-LR individuals processed both types of information in a manner that might contribute to an impaired ability to recognize modest levels of alcohol intoxication in a range of life situations.

SUBMITTER: Paulus MP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3433640 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

High versus low level of response to alcohol: evidence of differential reactivity to emotional stimuli.

Paulus Martin P MP Schuckit Marc A MA Tapert Susan F SF Tolentino Neil J NJ Matthews Scott C SC Smith Tom L TL Trim Ryan S RS Hall Shana A SA Simmons Alan N AN

Biological psychiatry 20120516 10

<h4>Background</h4>The low level of response (LR) or sensitivity to alcohol is genetically influenced and predicts heavy drinking and alcohol problems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using cognitive tasks suggest that subjects with a low-LR process cognitive information differently after placebo and alcohol than those with a high LR, but no studies have evaluated whether similar LR group differences are seen during an emotional processing task.<h4>Methods</h4>The fMRI data ...[more]

PMID: 22608014

Similar Datasets

Project description:Losing a job or significant other are examples of incentive loss that result in negative emotional reactions. The occurrence of negative life events is associated with increased drinking (Keyes, Hatzenbuehler, & Hasin, 2011). Further, certain genotypes are more likely to drink alcohol in response to stressful negative life events (Blomeyer et al., 2008; Covault et al., 2007). Shared genetic factors may contribute to alcohol drinking and emotional reactivity, but this relationship is not currently well understood. We used an incentive downshift paradigm to address whether emotional reactivity is elevated in mice predisposed to drink alcohol. We also investigated if ethanol drinking is influenced in High Alcohol Preferring mice that had been exposed to an incentive downshift. Incentive downshift procedures have been widely utilized to model emotional reactivity, and involve shifting a high reward group to a low reward and comparing the shifted group to a consistently rewarded control group. Here, we show that replicate lines of selectively bred High Alcohol Preferring mice exhibited larger successive negative contrast effects than their corresponding replicate Low Alcohol Preferring lines, providing strong evidence for a genetic association between alcohol drinking and susceptibility to the emotional effects of negative contrast. These mice can be used to study the shared neurological and genetic underpinnings of emotional reactivity and alcohol preference. Unexpectedly, an incentive downshift suppressed ethanol drinking immediately following an incentive downshift. This could be due to a specific effect of negative contrast on ethanol consumption or a suppressive effect on consummatory behavior in general. These data suggest that either alcohol intake does not provide the anticipated negative reinforcement, or that a single test was insufficient for animals to learn to drink following incentive downshift. However, the emotional intensity following incentive downshift provides initial evidence that this type of emotional reactivity may be a predisposing factor in alcoholism.

Project description:AimsPremenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a psychiatric condition that is associated with the menstrual cycle. Elucidation of the neural regulation mechanisms of brain reactivity to emotional stimuli among women with PMDD may inform PMDD treatment.MethodsEighty-six women (42 PMDD, 44 healthy controls) were allocated into two groups (anger-induced group: 23 PMDD vs. 23 controls; depression-induced group: 19 PMDD vs. 21 controls). During the luteal phases of the menstrual cycle, all the women were subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI resting-state scans were performed before and after the study participants had performed an emotional stimuli task. After the emotional stimuli task, emotional status of the participants were evaluated by Self-Rating Depression Scales (SDS) and Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II (STAXI-II). In addition, all the participants were requested to complete the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).ResultsCompared to healthy controls, all women with PMDD exhibited significantly high scores in Tas-20 (p<0.001), higher neuroticism and psychoticism scores as well as significantly low extraversion and social desirability scores (p<0.05). Compared to the controls, f-MRI revealed that PMDD women had elevated ReHo in the middle frontal gyrus (BA10), temporal lobe (BA42), left cerebellum (BA37), as well as decreased activation in the precuneus (BA7), superior frontal gyrus (BA8), lobulus paracentralis (BA6), and right cerebellum (BA48) (p<0.05). Moreover, depression stimuli showed that women with PMDD had elevated ReHo levels in the middle frontal gyrus (BA11), the middle gyrus (BA47) and in the cingulate gyrus (BA23) vs. healthy controls (p<0.05).ConclusionsWomen with more neuroticism and psychoticism, less extraversion and social desirability tend to report PMDD symptoms. Women with this condition experience difficulties in regulating emotions during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Abnormal ReHo levels in the precuneus, superior frontal gyrus, lobulus paracentralis, and right cerebellum may contribute to anger dysregulation. Hypoactivation in the middle frontal gyrus, the middle gyrus and the cingulate gyrus may be generally associated with depression dysregulation in PMDD.

Project description:Over the past two decades, evidence has accumulated that the human amygdala exerts some of its functions also when the observer is not aware of the content, or even presence, of the triggering emotional stimulus. Nevertheless, there is as of yet no consensus on the limits and conditions that affect the extent of amygdala's response without focused attention or awareness. Here we review past and recent studies on this subject, examining neuroimaging literature on healthy participants as well as brain-damaged patients, and we comment on their strengths and limits. We propose a theoretical distinction between processes involved in attentional unawareness, wherein the stimulus is potentially accessible to enter visual awareness but fails to do so because attention is diverted, and in sensory unawareness, wherein the stimulus fails to enter awareness because its normal processing in the visual cortex is suppressed. We argue this distinction, along with data sampling amygdala responses with high temporal resolution, helps to appreciate the multiplicity of functional and anatomical mechanisms centered on the amygdala and supporting its role in non-conscious emotion processing. Separate, but interacting, networks relay visual information to the amygdala exploiting different computational properties of subcortical and cortical routes, thereby supporting amygdala functions at different stages of emotion processing. This view reconciles some apparent contradictions in the literature, as well as seemingly contrasting proposals, such as the dual stage and the dual route model. We conclude that evidence in favor of the amygdala response without awareness is solid, albeit this response originates from different functional mechanisms and is driven by more complex neural networks than commonly assumed. Acknowledging the complexity of such mechanisms can foster new insights on the varieties of amygdala functions without awareness and their impact on human behavior.

Dataset Information

High versus low level of response to alcohol: evidence of differential reactivity to emotional stimuli.

Publications

High versus low level of response to alcohol: evidence of differential reactivity to emotional stimuli.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets