Acute sensitization of the P3 event-related potential response to beverage images and the risk for alcohol use disorder

Abstract

Previous research suggests the amplitude of the P3 event-related potential (ERP) response reflects the incentive value of the eliciting stimulus, and that individuals with trait-like lower sensitivity (LS) to the acute effects of alcohol, a potent risk factor for alcohol use disorder (AUD), tend to show exaggerated P3 ERP responses to alcohol beverage cues (compared to their peers with higher sensitivity; HS). No prior research has examined trajectories of the cue-elicited P3 response across repeated trials of nonreinforced cue presentations. Characterizing these trajectories can be informative as to potential mechanisms linking LS with increased AUD risk. Here, we tested whether individual differences in alcohol sensitivity are associated with different trial-by-trial trajectories of the P3 elicited by alcohol and nonalcohol reward cues (infrequent oddball/target stimuli) using a large sample of emerging adults (M _age = 19.53; N = 287; 55% female; 86% White; 90% right-handed) stratified for alcohol sensitivity. Multilevel models adjusted for age, sex, handedness, and alcohol use indicated that: (i) the P3 response to alcohol and nonalcohol reward cues alike sensitized (i.e., increased) across trials; (ii) across the task, the P3 response to alcohol cues was larger for the LS than the HS phenotype; and (iii) the P3 difference score (alcohol - nonalcohol) was larger for the LS than HS phenotype only across the first half of task. Findings suggest that whereas incentive value attribution may be a mechanism for alcohol cue-triggered attentional biases for both LS and HS individuals, LS individuals more consistently over-attribute incentive value to alcohol cues.

Keywords: Alcohol; Cue-reactivity; Incentive salience; LPP; P3; Subjective response.

Fig. 1.

Within-trial timecourse of the event-related potential (ERP) response to alcohol/nonalcohol picture oddball/target stimuli and neutral picture standard/non-target stimuli. Picture onset occurs at 0 ms. Picture offset occurs at 1000 ms. Alcohol = alcohol beverage pictures. NADrink = nonalcohol drink pictures. Neutral = affectively neutral pictures. Thin line at the center of each colored ribbon represents the M across participants’ average across 9-electrodes (PZ, P3, P4, P7, P8, PO7, PO8, O1, O2) for the indicated picture type. Ribbon thickness represents ± 1 SD across participants. Time-window (300–700 ms) used for P3 mean amplitude measurement is indicated by the lightly shaded rectangular area behind ribbons. Baseline correction was done using the 200 ms before picture onset. Data represents N = 287 participants.

Fig. 2.

Within-session trajectory of P3 mean amplitude (μV) for alcohol/nonalcohol picture oddball stimuli and neutral picture standard stimuli as a function of alcohol sensitivity. Alcohol = alcohol beverage pictures. NADrink = nonalcohol drink pictures. Neutral = affectively neutral pictures. Start = first artifact-free trial for each person. Middle = artifact-free trial that bisects each person’s set of artifact-free trials. End = final artifact-free trial for each person. Thin line at the center of each colored ribbon represents the covariate-adjusted LMM-estimated M P3 score at different relative times in the picture viewing task and the thickness of each colored ribbon represents the covariate-adjusted LMM-estimated ± 1 SE. LMM-estimated M ± SE were derived twice: once holding zASQ at z = −1 SD, which corresponds to high sensitivity (HS) phenotypes, and once holding zASQ at z = + 1 SD, which corresponds to low sensitivity (LS) phenotypes.* = p < .05 for alcohol sensitivity phenotype comparison.

Fig. 3.

Differences in mean amplitude (μV) of P3 responses to alcohol and nonalcohol picture stimuli at different times in the task as a function of alcohol sensitivity. Alcohol = alcohol beverage pictures. NADrink = nonalcohol drink pictures. Start = first artifact-free trial for each person. Middle = artifact-free trial that bisects each person’s set of artifact-free trials. End = final artifact-free trial for each person. Covariate-adjusted LMM-estimated M P3 difference scores shown at different relative times in the picture viewing task. Error bars = ± 1 SE. LMM-estimated M ± SE were derived twice: once holding zASQ at z = −1 SD, which corresponds to high sensitivity (HS) phenotypes, and once holding zASQ at z = + 1 SD, which corresponds to low sensitivity (LS) phenotypes. * = p < .05. Dashed line = within-timepoint, alcohol sensitivity phenotype comparison. Solid line = within-phenotype, timepoint comparisons.