A-22 Interference from Alcohol Stimuli Predicts Executive Control Performance in Alcohol Users

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 34 (2019) 860–1099 Abstract Poster Session A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL DOMAINS: EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS A-22 Interference from Alcohol Stimuli Predicts Executive Control Performance in Alcohol Users Von Nordheim D, Cortese M, Heaps-Woodruff J Objective: To investigate cognitive impairments associated with binge drinking, 78 college undergraduates (ages 18 to 50, M = 21, SD = 5.23) were recruited and categorized into alcohol use groups based on their reported consumption patterns (nondrinking, social drinking, or binge drinking). Method: Participants completed a modified Stroop task to examine differential interference between alcohol and neutral targets and an attention network task (ANT) to measure within and between group variance in attentional performance across the alerting, orienting, and executive control networks. Results: There were no significant performance differences between alcohol use groups on either task. However, a significant negative association between alcohol Stroop interference and executive control performance was observed for both the binge and social drinking groups, β = .033, t(48) = 3.81, p < .001, 95% CI [.016, .051]. This was a moderately large effect (η2p = .23) which was not significant for non-drinking individuals. Conclusions: This experiment provides evidence that attentional interference from alcohol stimuli indicates broader executive control impairment in alcohol users, further illustrating the role of this domain in problematic drinking behaviors. Our findings affirm the significance of executive control assessment in the screening and treatment protocol for alcohol use disorders. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: . doi:10.1093/arclin/acz034.22 Wednesday, November 13, 2019 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm  (...truncated)