• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.603-611
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• 2007

Initially, this study was to develop reliable and effective alcohol-associated visual cues. Alcoholic picture cues were chosen from the Normative Appetitive Picture System (NAPS). Additional images consisted of Korean beer and mild liquor was pre-tested to select the pictures that would induce craving most intensely. The images that recorded the highest scores on a scale were chosen through the pre-test. And then, the reliability and validity were examined for the selected alcohol cues from NAPS and pre-test via another psychometric test. Secondly, the study was to investigate differences in craving between subjects with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and non-alcoholic control subjects when exposed to the alcohol visual cues. Alcohol abusers with AUD (n=9) and demographically similar non-abusers (n=9) participated in this study. After given 5cc of alcohol, subjects were exposed to different types of stimuli (i.e., alcohol, nonalcoholic beverage, and visual control pictures and one rest (cross-hair)). Craving levels were rated through self-report on a Likert scale immediately after the presentation of visual cues. Results showed statistically significant differences between the AUD group and the control group in the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) scores, pre-sip and post-sip alcohol craving. Also, the AUD group showed significantly a higher level of craving during alcohol cues compared to the control group. In conclusion, alcohol craving induced by alcohol cues among subjects with AUD was found to be different from that of non-abusers.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.111-151
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• 2023

It is reported that binge drinkers show cognitive impairment similar to alcohol use disorder patients. A previous studies using neuropsychological tests and brain imaging techniques to investigate the visual perception of alcohol use disorder patients reported that they had global-local visual perception defects. Although the neurological basis for the global-local visual perception deficit in the heavy drinking group has been presented, there are no studies to date that have investigated the global-local visual perception in the heavy drinking group. This study investigated local-biased visual perception in female college students with binge drinking (BD) using event-related potentials (ERPs). Based on the scores of the Korean version of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test and the Alcohol Use Questionnaire, participants were assigned into BD (n=25) and non-BD (n=25) groups. Local-global visual processing was assessed using a local-global paradigm, in which large stimuli (global level) composed of small stimuli (local level) were presented. The stimuli presented at global and local levels were either congruent or incongruent. The behavioral results exhibited that the BD and non-BD groups did not differ in terms of accuracy and response time. In terms of ERPs, the BD and non-BD groups did not show difference in N100, P150 and N200 amplitude. However, the BD group showed significantly smaller P300 amplitude than non-BD group especially in the local condition. In addition, a negative correlation between P300 amplitude and binge drinking score was observed, i.e., severer binge drinking smaller P300 amplitude. The P300 is known to reflect cognitive inhibition and attentional allocation. In the global-local paradigm, the local condition required to attend to local target while ignoring global non-target. Therefore, the present results indicate that female college students with BD do not have local-biased visual processing, instead they seem to have difficulties in inhibition of irrelevant stimuli.