Decreased amygdala activation during risk taking in non-dependent habitual alcohol users: A preliminary fMRI study of the stop signal task.
OBJECTIVE
Habitual alcohol use is prodromal to alcohol dependence. It has been suggested that impairment in impulse control contributes to habitual drinking. Little is known whether neural processes associated with impulse control is altered in non-dependent social drinkers. The current preliminary study combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and the stop signal task (SST) to address this issue.


METHODS
We compared non-dependent non/light (n = 12) and moderate/heavy (n = 9) young adult alcohol drinkers in a SST, in which they were required to exercise inhibitory control during the stop trials and were engaged in a speed/accuracy trade-off during trial-to-trial go responses. Our previous studies identified neural correlates of inhibitory control and risk taking during the SST ( [10] , [11] ). Furthermore, alcohol dependent patients showed altered brain activation both during inhibitory control and risk taking, compared to healthy controls ( [12] ).


RESULTS
We showed that moderate/heavy alcohol drinkers were decreased in amygdala activation during risk taking, while indistinguishable in neural measures of inhibitory control, when compared to non/light drinkers.


CONCLUSIONS
Altered amygdala activation during risk taking may be a key neural process underlying early habitual alcohol use and a potential marker mediating transition to alcohol dependence.
Yan
Peisi
P
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA.
Li
Chiang-Shan Ray
CS
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012309:Risk-Taking