title: Female but not male young heavy drinkers display altered performance monitoring.
abstract: Difficulties in monitoring ongoing behaviour may be linked to real-life problematic drinking behaviours. Prior research suggests female heavy drinkers in particular display greater cognitive control deficits. Here, we examine trial-to-trial behavioural adaptations in a conflict monitoring task, relative to drinking behaviour and sex. Heavy drinkers (n=31, 16 male) and controls (n=35, 18 male) completed an Eriksen flanker task while brain electrical activity was recorded. For reaction time, error rates, and N2 and P3 amplitude of the event-related potential, trial-to-trial conflict adaptation was evidenced by a differential response to the current (congruent vs. incongruent) trials dependent on the identity of the previous trial. For the proportion of errors, heavy drinkers showed increased conflict adaptation compared to controls. Conflict adaptation for N2 (indexing monitoring) was larger for female heavy drinkers than controls, and the opposite was observed for males. There were no interactions involving group or sex for the P3 (indexing inhibition). The results suggest a compensatory response, such that heavy drinkers are required to increase performance monitoring in order to achieve the same behavioural outcome as controls. We also confirm the importance of sex as a factor in the relationship between behavioural control and heavy alcohol use.
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: janette.smith@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Janette L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Mattick
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sufani
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcohol; Behavioural control; Conflict adaptation; Impulsivity; Monitoring; Sex