Acute effects of alcohol on error-elicited negative affect during a cognitive control task
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ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
Acute effects of alcohol on error-elicited negative affect during a cognitive control task Roberto U. Cofresí 1
&
Bruce D. Bartholow 1
Received: 14 April 2020 / Accepted: 21 July 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Rationale Alcohol intoxication can dampen negative affective reactions to stressors. Recently, it has been proposed that these acute anxiolytic effects of alcohol may extend to dampening of negative affective reactions to error commission during cognitive control tasks. Nonetheless, empirical verification of this claim is lacking. Objectives Test the acute effect of alcohol on negative affective reactions to errors during an effort-demanding cognitive control task. Methods Healthy, young adult social drinkers (N = 96 [49 women], 21–36 years old) were randomly assigned to consume alcohol (0.80 g/kg; n = 33 [15 female]), active placebo (0.04 g/kg; n = 33 [18 women]), or a non-alcoholic control beverage (n = 30 [16 women]) before completing the Eriksen flanker task. Corrugator supercilii (Corr) activation, a psychophysiological index of negative affect, was tracked across the task. Two neurophysiological reactions to errors, the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe), were also measured. Results Erroneous actions increased Corr activation in the control and (to a lesser extent) placebo groups, but not in the alcohol group. Error-induced Corr activation was coupled to ERN and Pe in the control, but not in the alcohol and placebo groups. Errorinduced Corr activation was not coupled to post-error performance adjustments in any group. Conclusions The ability of alcohol to dampen error-related negative affect was verified. It was also shown that placebo alone can disrupt coupling of affective and (neuro)cognitive reactions to errors. Although its behavioral relevance remains to be demonstrated, more attention should be paid to the role of affect in action monitoring and cognitive control processes. Keywords Action monitoring . Alcohol . Anterior cingulate cortex . Blame attribution . Cognitive control . Corrugator supercilii . ERP . Errors . Negative affect . Performance adjustments
Cognitive control refers to a set of cognitive processes that allow individuals to guide their behavior in accordance with internal goals (Alexander and Brown 2010; Braver 2012; Gratton et al. 2018). A core component of cognitive control is the ability to adjust behavior in response to varying situational demands (Botvinick et al. 2001). Considerable research points to a neural circuit centered on the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as critical to cognitive control, Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05619-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Roberto U. Cofresí [email protected] 1
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
particularly for signaling when adjustments in control are
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