Edwards, Mark

Lyvers, Michael F.

English

Background: Deficits of frontal lobe functioning and associated cognitive impairments are well known correlates of chronic alcoholism and are commonly interpreted as reflecting cumulative effects of high alcohol exposure (Lyvers, 2000). Alternatively, such associations may reflect traits predating alcohol exposure which predispose to risky drinking . For example, university students have a higher prevalence of alcohol use as well as risky drinking than do non-students of the same age, yet not all students drink at risky levels, suggesting that excessive alcohol use by young adults may be influenced by underlying trait factors in addition to social factors. Recent studies using self-report indices have identified frontal lobe related traits such as impulsiveness, reward sensitivity, disinhibition, and executive dysfunction as factors associated with risky drinking in young adults (Lyvers et al., 2009, 2011). The proposed project will extend this work by administering neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function to young adults aged 18-26 years to assess whether deficiencies in frontal lobe function are related to risky alcohol use by young adults

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryImpulsivity, Executive Cognition and Reward Sensitivity in Relation to Excessive orProblematic Alcohol ConsumptionLyvers, Michael F.; Edwards, MarkPublished: 01/01/2012Document Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Lyvers, M. F., & Edwards, M. (2012). Impulsivity, Executive Cognition and Reward Sensitivity in Relation toExcessive or Problematic Alcohol Consumption. Poster session presented at Research Week 2012, Gold Coast,Australia.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 10 May 2019            Impulsivity, Executive Cognition and Reward Sensitivity in Relation to Excessive or Problematic Alcohol Consumption                        Michael Lyvers & Mark Edwards, Department of Psychology, Bond University Background: Deficits of frontal lobe functioning and associated cognitive impairments are well known correlates of chronic alcoholism and are commonly interpreted as reflecting cumulative effects of high alcohol exposure (Lyvers, 2000). Alternatively, such associations may reflect traits predating alcohol exposure which predispose to risky drinking . For example, university students have a higher prevalence of alcohol use as well as risky drinking than do non-students of the same age, yet not all students drink at risky levels, suggesting that excessive alcohol use by young adults may be influenced by underlying trait factors in addition to social factors. Recent studies using self-report indices have identified  frontal lobe related traits such as impulsiveness,  reward sensitivity, disinhibition, and executive dysfunction as factors associated with risky drinking in young adults (Lyvers et al., 2009, 2011). The proposed project will extend this work by administering neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function to young adults aged 18-26 years to assess whether deficiencies in frontal lobe function are related to risky alcohol use by young adults.   Pilot data. Young adults of both genders aged 18-26 years were recruited from university (n = 124) and from the community (n = 47).  They were tested on a university computer and paid $30 for participation. Alcohol breath test confirmed that no participant was intoxicated at time of testing. Results: Trait indices of impulsivity,  reward sensitivity, disinhibition and executive dysfunction were significantly related to risky drinking in the university sample as in previous work, however performance on neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe functioning were unrelated to alcohol use in this sample. Because university students are selected for good problem-solving skills and thus might be expected to perform well on such tests irrespective of typical alcohol use, the smaller community sample was assessed separately. They were divided into Low Risk, Hazardous, and Harmful drinkers based on their Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al, 1993) scores. MANCOVA controlling for age and gender revealed a significant effect of AUDIT group on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Tower Test, F(8, 32) = 2.72, p = .02, observed power = .86. Individual effects were significant for IGT, F(2, 18) = 4.21, p = .03, and the Tower Test, F(2, 18) = 5.15, p = .02. WCST perseverative errors (PE) approached significance (p < .10) (see below). _____________________________________________                             Low Risk   Hazardous      Harmful WCST-PE        4.03 (7.25)    8.89 (11.86)    8.34 (6.89) IGT total       2246 (1054) 3355 (1129) 1907 (482) Tower Ach       21.88 (3.27) 20.50 (2.92)     18.86 (2.19) _______________________________________________                            Discussion: These neuropsychological tests can distinguish patients with focal lesions of the frontal lobes from those with lesions of posterior regions as well as controls, thus our preliminary results in a non-clinical sample are striking. As participants were young adult social drinkers who reported never being treated for any alcohol or drug related problem, with no history of head injury or neuropsychological or psychological disorder, findings are consistent with our hypothesis that some of the executive function deficits reported in alcoholic samples may reflect premorbid traits rather than sequelae of chronic alcoholism. However, a sufficiently large and representative sample must be tested before such conclusions are justified. The current project aims to test 200 young adults recruited from both university and community settings. We anticipate that the final results will confirm and extend our intriguing pilot findings.         References Lyvers, M. (2000). "Loss of control" in alcoholism and drug addiction:      A neuroscientific interpretation. Experimental and Clinical     Psychopharmacology, 8, 225-249.  Lyvers, M., Czerczyk, C., Follent, A., & Lodge, P. (2009).     Disinhibition and reward sensitivity in relation to alcohol     consumption by university undergraduates. Addiction Research &     Theory, 17(6), 668-677.   Lyvers, M., Duff, H., & Hasking, P. (2011). Risky alcohol use and age     at onset of regular alcohol consumption in relation to frontal lobe    indices, reward sensitivity, and rash impulsiveness. Addiction       Research & Theory, 19, 251-259.  Saunders, J. B., et al. (1993). Development of the Alcohol Use     Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO Collaborative Project     on Early Detection of Persons with Harmful Alcohol Consumption:     II. Addiction, 88, 791-804.                                

Impulsivity, Executive Cognition and Reward Sensitivity in Relation to Excessive or Problematic Alcohol Consumption

https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/files/27484954/Mike_Lyvers.pdf

Impulsivity, Executive Cognition and Reward Sensitivity in Relation to Excessive or Problematic Alcohol Consumption

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