THE IMPACT OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ON THE DISPLAYED AFFECT OF WHITE INDIVIDUALS ENGAGING IN INTERRACIAL INTERACTIONS

Evidence from empirical studies using static race cues suggests that alcohol consumption may increase expressions of prejudice. However, these data may not reliably predict the behavior of Whites during interracial interactions since both expressions of stigma and the effects of alcohol intoxication have been shown to vary widely from non-social to social paradigms. The current study aimed to capture in real time the dynamic and evolving processes involved in interracial interactions and examined how these processes are modified by alcohol consumption. I used Paul Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to conduct a micro-analysis of the emotional experience of Whites engaging in a 36-minute interaction with either two other Whites (racially homogeneous groups), or one White and one Black participants (interracial groups). Alcohol moderated the impact of group racial composition on expressions associated with self-awareness but did not moderate other positive or negative affective displays. Results highlight the role of presentational concerns in modern interracial interactions

PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES IN SUBJECTIVE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL: A DYNAMIC EXAMINATION OF THE PATHWAYS EXPLAINING ALCOHOL-RELATED REWARD

Through decades of research scientists have found personality traits such as extraversion and sensation-seeking to represent robust risk factors for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Results of survey studies suggest that extraverted individuals gain greater mood enhancement from consuming alcohol than introverted individuals. However, alcohol administration studies to date have not found evidence of alcohol reward-sensitivity among extraverts. Of note, prior alcohol administration studies have examined these (highly social) individuals consuming alcohol alone. In the present study I examined whether extraverted individuals gained greater reward from consuming alcohol in a laboratory-based social drinking paradigm and, further, whether social processes explained alcohol reward sensitivity among extraverts. Social drinkers (n = 720) consumed a moderate dose of alcohol, placebo, or control beverage in groups of three over the course of 36 minutes. Their social interaction was video-recorded, and Duchenne smiling was coded using the Facial Action Coding System. Results suggested that extraverted individuals gained significantly more self-reported mood enhancement from alcohol than introverts. Further, findings of moderated mediation analyses indicated that social processes accounted for alcohol reward-sensitivity among extraverts. Alcohol significantly increased duration of smiles that were shared between group members (simultaneous smiles), and the association between simultaneous smiles and self-reported reward was strongest among extraverts. There was a non-significant trend (p <.10) suggesting sensation seeking moderated the impact of alcohol, but the processes underlying alcohol reward did not differ according to sensation-seeking. Findings point to the importance of considering social processes in the study of individuals vulnerable to alcohol problems and further offer new directions for alcohol research that combines the study of individual differences with the study of mechanism

Estimating the Distribution of Random Parameters in a Diffusion Equation Forward Model for a Transdermal Alcohol Biosensor

We estimate the distribution of random parameters in a distributed parameter model with unbounded input and output for the transdermal transport of ethanol in humans. The model takes the form of a diffusion equation with the input being the blood alcohol concentration and the output being the transdermal alcohol concentration. Our approach is based on the idea of reformulating the underlying dynamical system in such a way that the random parameters are now treated as additional space variables. When the distribution to be estimated is assumed to be defined in terms of a joint density, estimating the distribution is equivalent to estimating the diffusivity in a multi-dimensional diffusion equation and thus well-established finite dimensional approximation schemes, functional analytic based convergence arguments, optimization techniques, and computational methods may all be employed. We use our technique to estimate a bivariate normal distribution based on data for multiple drinking episodes from a single subject.Comment: 10 page

Extraversion and the Rewarding Effects of Alcohol in a Social Context

The personality trait of extraversion has been linked to problematic drinking patterns. Researchers have long hypothesized that such associations are attributable to increased alcohol-reward sensitivity among extraverted individuals, and surveys suggest that individuals high in extraversion gain greater mood enhancement from alcohol than those low in extraversion. Surprisingly, however, alcohol administration studies have not found individuals high in extraversion to experience enhanced mood following alcohol consumption. Of note, prior studies have examined extraverted participants-individuals who selfidentify as being highly social-consuming alcohol in isolation. In the present research, we used a group drinking paradigm to examine whether individuals high in extraversion gained greater reward from alcohol than did those low in extraversion and, further, whether a particular social mechanism (partners&apos; Duchenne smiling) might underlie alcohol reward sensitivity among extraverted individuals. Social drinkers (n ϭ 720) consumed a moderate dose of alcohol, placebo, or control beverage in groups of 3 over the course of 36 min. This social interaction was video-recorded, and Duchenne smiling was coded using the Facial Action Coding System. Results indicated that participants high in extraversion reported significantly more mood enhancement from alcohol than did those low in extraversion. Further, mediated moderation analyses focusing on Duchenne smiling of group members indicated that social processes fully and uniquely accounted for alcohol reward-sensitivity among individuals high in extraversion. Results provide initial experimental evidence that individuals high in extraversion experience increased mood-enhancement from alcohol and further highlight the importance of considering social processes in the etiology of alcohol use disorder

The daily association between affect and alcohol use: a meta-analysis of individual participant data

Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people are not more likely to drink on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance consumed more alcohol, but not on days they experienced higher negative and positive affect. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. These findings challenge the long-held belief that people drink more alcohol following increases in negative affect. Integrating these findings under different theoretical models and limitations of this field of research, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.The present study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant MOP-115104 (Roisin M. O’Connor), Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant MSH-122803 (Roisin M. O’Connor), John A. Hartford Foundation Grant (Paul Sacco), Loyola University Chicago Research Support Grant (Tracy De Hart), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Grant T03OH008435 (Cynthia Mohr), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant F31AA023447 (Ryan W. Carpenter), NIH Grant R01AA025936 (Kasey G. Creswell), NIH Grant R01AA025969 (Catharine E. Fairbairn), NIH Grant R21AA024156 (Anne M. Fairlie), NIH Grant F31AA024372 (Fallon Goodman), NIH Grant R01DA047247 (Kevin M. King), NIH Grant K01AA026854 (Ashley N. Linden-Carmichael), NIH Grant K01AA022938 (Jennifer E. Merrill), NIH Grant K23AA024808 (Hayley Treloar Padovano), NIH Grant P60AA11998 (Timothy Trull), NIH Grant MH69472 (Timothy Trull), NIH Grant K01DA035153 (Nisha Gottfredson), NIH Grant P50DA039838 (Ashley N. Linden-Carmichael), NIH Grant K01DA047417 (David M. Lydon-Staley), NIH Grant T32DA037183 (M. Kushner), NIH Grant R21DA038163 (A. Moore), NIH Grant K12DA000167 (M. Potenza, Stephanie S. O’Malley), NIH Grant R01AA025451 (Bruce Bartholow, Thomas M. Piasecki), NIH Grant P50AA03510 (V. Hesselbrock), NIH Grant K01AA13938 (Kristina M. Jackson), NIH Grant K02AA028832 (Kevin M. King), NIH Grant T32AA007455 (M. Larimer), NIH Grant R01AA025037 (Christine M. Lee, M. Patrick), NIH Grant R01AA025611 (Melissa Lewis), NIH Grant R01AA007850 (Robert Miranda), NIH Grant R21AA017273 (Robert Miranda), NIH Grant R03AA014598 (Cynthia Mohr), NIH Grant R29AA09917 (Cynthia Mohr), NIH Grant T32AA07290 (Cynthia Mohr), NIH Grant P01AA019072 (P. Monti), NIH Grant R01AA015553 (J. Morgenstern), NIH Grant R01AA020077 (J. Morgenstern), NIH Grant R21AA017135 (J. Morgenstern), NIH Grant R01AA016621 (Stephanie S. O’Malley), NIH Grant K99AA029459 (Marilyn Piccirillo), NIH Grant F31AA022227 (Nichole Scaglione), NIH Grant R21AA018336 (Katie Witkiewitz), Portuguese State Budget Foundation for Science and Technology Grant UIDB/PSI/01662/2020 (Teresa Freire), University of Washington Population Health COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant (J. Kanter, Adam M. Kuczynski), U.S. Department of Defense Grant W81XWH-13-2-0020 (Cynthia Mohr), SANPSY Laboratory Core Support Grant CNRS USR 3413 (Marc Auriacombe), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant (N. Galambos), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant (Andrea L. Howard)

The Effect of Alcohol on Emotional Inertia: A Test of Alcohol Myopia

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Alcohol myopia (AM) has emerged as one of the most widely researched theories of alcohol’s effects on emotional experience. Given this theory’s popularity, it is notable that a central tenet of AM has not been tested—namely, that alcohol creates a myopic focus on the present moment, limiting the extent to which the present is permeated by emotions derived from prior experience. We tested the impact of alcohol on moment-to-moment fluctuations in affect, applying advances in emotion assessment and statistical analysis to test this aspect of AM without drawing the attention of participants to their own emotional experiences. We measured emotional fluctuations using autocorrelation, a statistic borrowed from time-series analysis measuring the correlation between successive observations in time. High emotion autocorrelation is termed emotional inertia and is linked to negative mood outcomes. Social drinkers (N � 720) consumed alcohol, placebo, or control beverages in groups of 3 over a 36-min group formation task. We indexed affect using the Duchenne smile, recorded continuously during the interaction (34.9 million video frames) according to the Facial Action Coding System (P. Ekman, W. V. Friesen, &amp; J. C. Hager, 2002). Autocorrelation of Duchenne smiling emerged as the most consistent predictor of self-reported mood and social bonding when compared with Duchenne smiling mean, standard deviation, and linear trend. Alcohol reduced affective autocorrelation, and autocorrelation mediated the link between alcohol and self-reported mood and social outcomes. Findings suggest that alcohol enhances the ability to freely enjoy the present moment untethered by past experience and highlight the importance of emotion dynamics in research examining affective correlates of psychopathology

Using Machine Learning for Real-Time BAC Estimation from a New-Generation Transdermal Biosensor in the Laboratory

Background: Transdermal biosensors offer a noninvasive, low-cost technology for the assessment of alcohol consumption with broad potential applications in addiction science. Older-generation transdermal devices feature bulky designs and sparse sampling intervals, limiting potential applications for transdermal technology. Recently a new-generation of transdermal device has become available, featuring smartphone connectivity, compact designs, and rapid sampling. Here we present initial laboratory research examining the validity of a new-generation transdermal sensor prototype. Methods: Participants were young drinkers administered alcohol (target BAC=.08%) or no-alcohol in the laboratory. Participants wore transdermal sensors while providing repeated breathalyzer (BrAC) readings. We assessed the association between BrAC (measured BrAC for a specific time point) and eBrAC (BrAC estimated based only on transdermal readings collected in the immediately preceding time interval). Extra-Trees machine learning algorithms, incorporating transdermal time series features as predictors, were used to create eBrAC. Results: Failure rates for the new-generation prototype sensor were high (16%-34%). Among participants with useable new-generation sensor data, models demonstrated strong capabilities for separating drinking from non-drinking episodes, and significant (moderate) ability to differentiate BrAC levels within intoxicated participants. Differences between eBrAC and BrAC were 60% higher for models based on data from old-generation vs new-generation devices. Model comparisons indicated that both time series analysis and machine learning contributed significantly to final model accuracy. Conclusions: Results provide favorable preliminary evidence for the accuracy of real-time BAC estimates from a new-generation sensor. Future research featuring variable alcohol doses and real-world contexts will be required to further validate these devices