Attentional bias for caffeine-related stimuli in high but not moderate or non-caffeine consumers.
BACKGROUND
Attentional bias for drug-related cues has been reported with a wide range of drugs, but to date the extent to which caffeine consumers show similar biases for caffeine-related stimuli has not been tested. The present study therefore examined this issue in terms of differences in attentional bias for caffeine-related words in High, Moderate and Non-caffeine consumers using a dot-probe word task following overnight caffeine abstinence.


OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to test whether caffeine consumers show an attentional bias for caffeine-related words, and whether such biases relate to habitual levels of caffeine use.


METHODS
Sixteen High, Moderate and Non-consumers of caffeine were asked to complete a modified dot-probe task in order to measure attentional bias for caffeine-related relative to neutral control word groups. The task was completed following overnight caffeine abstinence, and participants also completed mood and caffeine-craving measures.


RESULTS
The High consumer group showed a significant attentional bias for the caffeine-related words, but no such bias was seen in Moderate or Non-consumer groups. As expected, craving for caffeine was strongest in the High consumers and weakest in the Non-consumers. Attentional bias in the High group correlated with self-reported caffeine consumption and with craving for caffeine, but neither effect was significant in the Moderate group.


CONCLUSIONS
These data confirm that High caffeine consumers show attentional bias for caffeine-related stimuli, consistent with current theories of drug addiction.
Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9Q6, UK. martin@sussex.ac.uk
Martin R
MR
Yeomans
Shabnam
S
Javaherian
Heather M
HM
Tovey
Lorenzo D
LD
Stafford
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D002110:Caffeine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003463:Cues; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis
D002110:Caffeine