Arousal-related P3a to novel auditory stimuli is abolished by a moderately low alcohol dose.

Concurrent measures of event-related potentials (ERPs) and skin conductance responses were obtained in an auditory oddball task consisting of rare target, rare non-signal unique novel and frequent standard tones. Twelve right-handed male social drinkers participated in all four cells of the balanced placebo design in which effects of beverage and instructions as to the beverage content (expectancy) were independently manipulated. The beverage contained either juice only, or vodka mixed with juice in the ratio that successfully disguised the taste of alcohol and raised average peak blood-alcohol level to 0.045% (45 mg/dl). ERPs were sensitive to adverse effects of mild inebriation, whereas behavioural measures were not affected. Alcohol ingestion reliably increased N2 amplitude and reduced the late positive complex (LPC). A large, fronto-central P3a (280 ms latency) was recorded to novel sounds in the placebo condition, but only on the trials that also evoked electrodermal-orienting responses. Both novel and target stimuli evoked a posterior P3b (340 ms), which was independent of orienting. Alcohol selectively attenuated the P3a to novel sounds on trials with autonomic arousal. This evidence confirms the previously suggested distinction between the subcomponents of the LPC: P3a may be a central index of orienting to novel, task-irrelevant but potentially significant stimuli and is an important component of the arousal system. P3b does not have a clear relationship with arousal and may embody voluntary cognitive processing of rare task-related stimuli. Overall, these results indicate that alcohol affects multiple brain systems concerned with arousal, attentional processes and cognitive-autonomic integration.

Alcohol effects on movement-related potentials: a measure of impulsivity?

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on lateralized readiness potential (LRP), a central measure of movement-related brain activity, and the potential association of such effects with personality measures. METHOD: Male volunteers (N = 12) alternated responding hands during a "go/no go" verbal recognition task across all four sessions of the balanced placebo design in which beverage content (either juice only or a vodka and juice mixture that raised the average blood alcohol concentration to 0.045%) was crossed with instructions as to beverage content. RESULTS: Whereas the instructions had no effect on behavioral (response accuracy and reaction time) and physiological (LRP) measures, alcohol decreased reaction times adjusted for psychometer speed. As expected, large LRPs were recorded on "go" trials and were not affected by the beverage. However, the "no go" words that did not require and did not evoke motor responses, also evoked significant LRPs under alcohol but not placebo. Since only trials with correct responses and correct abstentions from responses were included in the averages, the motor preparation was not completed and was terminated before the motor response on "no go" trials. Similarly, there was a decrease in spectral power of the movement-related mu-rhythm on "no go" trials under alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol may result in disinhibition such that the "response execution" process is activated based on very preliminary stimulus evaluation. This alcohol-induced brain activity signaling premature motor preparation exhibited correlation trends with personality traits related to impulsivity, hyperactivity and antisocial tendencies, thus concurring with other evidence that indicates commonalities between alcoholism and impulsivity, disinhibition and antisocial behaviors. The LRP on "no go" trials could potentially be used as a psychological index of the impulsiveness induced by alcohol intoxication.

Reply to Lilienfeld: why alcoholism is a disease.

Lilienfeld's attack on my conceptual examination of the disease concept of alcoholism suffers from erroneous interpretations, fallacious reasoning, and a lack of familiarity with relevant alcoholism research. He offers an alternative nominalist interpretation of the disease concept of alcoholism based on a fuzzy boundary between disease and wellness. He fails to recognize that the basic issue between nominalist and realist accounts of a lower-order concept such as alcoholism is the presence or absence of general principles that may account for the observed signs and symptoms characterizing a specific disease entity, not fuzzy boundaries between higher-order categories. Extensive evidence (which Lilienfeld ignores) of biological bases for the pathognomic signs and symptoms of alcoholism, particularly loss of control, demonstrates that the disease concept of alcoholism refers to a disease entity that has a biological basis. It is not a "mental construct."

Food preferences among individuals with and without Prader-Willi syndrome.

Eleven individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome and 10 control subjects who had mental retardation due to other causes (with and without overeating histories) participated in two experiments on food preferences. They gave preference rankings for various foods, then chose between a small amount of their most preferred food and an alternative choice of a larger amount of mixed-preference foods (Experiment 1) or an alternative choice of a larger amount of their least preferred food (Experiment 2). Unlike overweight-prone control subjects who selected sweet food over a larger quantity of unpreferred food, subjects with Prader-Willi syndrome selected preferred items only over least-preferred items (Experiment 2) but not over mixed-preference items (Experiment 1). Implications for treatment were discussed.

Childhood abuse of parents of alcohol and other drug misusing adolescents.

Parental history of childhood physical/sexual abuse was examined among 68 parents of hospitalized middle-class adolescent alcohol/drug misusers and 68 parents of comparable nonhospitalized adolescents. Childhood physical and/or sexual abuse was reported by 54% of control and 48% of patient mothers and 46% of patient and 47% of control fathers, nonsignificant group and gender differences. Abused as compared to nonabused parents reported significantly greater alcohol dependency, more lifetime medical and childhood hyperactivity symptoms, lower levels of socialization, and greater levels of verbal ability, neuroticism, and addiction proneness.

Why alcoholism is a disease.

Arguments of proponents and critics of a disease concept of alcoholism are reviewed. It is concluded that the disease concept of alcoholism is in accord with modern usage of the concept of disease in the philosophy of science and the practice of biomedical science. Ascription of the term "disease" involves a value judgment by experts that observed lawfully recurring signs and symptoms are a significant deviation from a norm or standard of health. Value judgments of this and other kinds are inherent in biobehavioral science and its application. Criticisms of the traditional conception of the disease concept fail to distinguish empirical questions of etiology, treatment, and the characteristic features of alcoholism from the conventional and evaluative nature of the classification "disease." A critical review of the empirical research purporting to question the signs and symptoms of loss of control in alcoholics is also provided.

Factors associated with alcohol use in university students.

A survey was conducted of drinking, drug use attitudes, beliefs, personality and demographic characteristics of students on a university campus. Gender, ethnic and social group differences were also examined. It was concluded that a biopsychosocial matrix of determinants influenced alcohol consumption and its excessive consumption. Two general factors emerged from analyses of the results. They may be interpreted as entering into a complex approach-avoidance conflict where the net approach tendency determines overall alcohol consumption. Personality characteristics and presumably their biological correlates, as well as set and setting, or attitudes, beliefs and environmental influences contribute to the approach-avoidance conflict that determines abstinence or varying amounts of alcohol consumption.

Individual and family characteristics of middle class adolescents hospitalized for alcohol and other drug abuse.

The frequency of alcohol and drug use, abuse and severity of dependence, and personality and family characteristics in 280 female and male hospitalized adolescents in treatment for chemical dependence and 120 middle class adolescents were examined. A MANOVA showed that parents' drug and alcohol use was a main effect, increasing frequency of use and severity of dependence upon alcohol and drugs in both groups of adolescents. Sexual and physical abuse studied in the patient group also functioned as a main effect. Patients reported significantly less family interests, and participation in intellectual, cultural and social activities, but more control than the comparison group. It was concluded that adolescent alcohol and other drug abuse is part of a biopsychosocial syndrome of problem behavior, which includes the problem behavior of parents and the interacting family unit.

Selective effects of alcohol on electrodermal indices of orienting reflexes to signal and nonsignal stimuli.

Effects of a moderate dose of alcohol on the electrodermal orienting reflexes evoked by novel signal, novel nonsignal, and common nonsignal stimuli were assessed. Social drinkers were randomly assigned to the four cells of a balanced placebo design, with 10 males and 10 females per group. They drank a beverage consisting of either tonic water only, or tonic water plus enough vodka to raise blood alcohol levels to approximately .05%. Following drinking and absorption periods, spontaneous and evoked skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. Subjects pressed a footpedal whenever they heard an odd stimulus tone in a series. Alcohol increased the frequency of spontaneous SCRs, increased the number of incorrect pedal-press responses, and selectively enhanced SCRs evoked by the signal tone, p less than .05. Results are interpreted in terms of a hypothesized selective effect of alcohol on frontal cortical inhibitory functions.

The balanced placebo design: effects of alcohol and beverage instructions cannot be independently assessed.

Subjects were randomly assigned to the four cells of the balanced placebo design, with 10 males and 10 females per cell. Following told-alcohol or told-no alcohol beverage instruction manipulations, participants consumed either a vodka-tonic beverage containing a dose of vodka sufficient to induce a peak blood alcohol level of 0.05% or a beverage containing only tonic water. Subjects' self-report ratings of beverage alcohol content indicated that alcohol overrode the effects of beverage instructions in the told-tonic/given-alcohol condition. It was concluded that the design cannot independently evaluate effects of both alcohol and beverage instructions when behaviorally significant alcohol doses are administered.

Is alcoholism a disease? A critical review of a controversy.

Commentators have repeatedly attacked the traditional view that alcoholism is a disease. Their arguments that alcoholism is a central aspect of life, a deviant life style, or a form of learned behavior are examined in the light of the history and philosophy of medicine as well as current bio-behavioral research. Our conclusion is that alcoholism, as a lawful pattern of observable signs and symptoms that deviate significantly from a norm of health, is a bio-psychosocial disease.

Selective effects of alcohol on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance.

Social drinker volunteers were randomly assigned to the four cells of a balanced placebo design, with 10 males and 10 females per cell. They consumed a beverage which contained either tonic water only, or tonic water plus sufficient vodka to induce peak blood alcohol levels of approximately 0.05%. Subjects then completed a computer version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in two runs. Compared to tonic only, beverage alcohol selectively increased per cent perseverative errors as well as other measures of perseveration and the number of trials, p less than 0.05. Results are interpreted in terms of an hypothesized differential action on functions of the frontal cortex in addition to possible non-specific effects of alcohol. Issues pertaining to expectancy interpretations are also discussed.

The OR and significance.

A brief review was conducted of past and current research and theory as well as future implications of the problem of significance and the OR. Research and theory in the field is judged to be at a choice point: advance to interesting and important problems integrated with biobehavioral research or enter a blind alley of pseudo-problems derived from computer metaphors and cognitive folk psychology.

Locus of semantic generalization of the galvanic skin response and possible inhibitory influence of conditional stimuli upon unconditional response following conditioning with innocuous and noxious unconditional stimuli.

Two different problems were investigated using the GSR index of the orienting reflex (OR): 1) the locus of semantic generalization; and 2) a possible inhibitory influence of the CS upon the UCR. Two experiments were conducted. One experiment employed an innocuous USC, and a second similar experiment used a loud noise as the UCS. Unidirectional word associates were employed in the test of the direction of semantic generalization. Constant and varying CS words were used to test the possible inhibitory influence of the CS upon the UCR. Evidence was obtained of semantic generalization occurring in the training and in the test situation. There was no evidence of the CS developing inhibition over the UCR. Theoretical interpretation of both phenomena were considered. The need for developing theories of conditioning of the OR in humans was emphasized in contrast to current efforts to apply inappropriate cognitive animals learning theories which fail to consider biologic constraints.

A reply to Cook, "Craftsman versus Professional: Analysis of the Controlled Drinking Controversy".

I agree with Cook that ideology may influence the selection and presentation of facts in behavioral science. But this is not a primary issue involved in the so-called controlled drinking controversy. A primary issue is my allegation that the Sobells did not do what they said they did and they did not find what they said they found. I believe that the Sobells did not conduct their IBTA study in the manner in which they claimed. On the contrary, they have made mutually contradictory claims concerning the procedures employed. Evidence is also presented suggesting the nonrandom assignment of patients to experimental and control groups.

Smoking, personality, and imagery preference in relation to spontaneous bilateral electrodermal activity.

Effects of smoking on spontaneous bilateral skin conductance were studied as a consequence of interactions with set and setting. Bilateral skin conductance was recorded in six men and six women who smoked and an equal number of nonsmokers on two different days. On the first day, spontaneous electrodermal activity was recorded before and after a 10-minute rest period during which half the smokers smoked a cigarette. On the second day, one week later, spontaneous activity was again recorded before and after a 10-minute rest period during which the remaining smokers smoked a cigarette. Nonsmokers did not smoke at any time. Following smoking there was a significant negative correlation between a preference for visual over nonvisual imagery and spontaneous skin conductance responsivity in the left as compared to the right hand. Correlations were significantly different in smokers and nonsmokers. Smokers showed significantly greater preferences for either visual or nonvisual imagery than nonsmokers. Nonresponding nonsmokers were higher on the psychoticism (P) scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) than responding nonsmokers. Smokers scored higher on P than nonsmokers. Interactions between personality, cognitive style, and the experimental situation, set, and setting were discussed in relation to the arousing effects of nicotine.

Behavioural and electrodermal measures of lateralization for music perception in musicians and nonmusicians.

Two groups of students, musicians and nonmusicians were tested on a dichotic listening forced choice recognition task with concurrent recording of bilateral electrodermal activity. Stimuli were excerpts of Bach 4-part chorales; probes were the soprano, bass, harmony or the chorale excerpt, with or without changed notes. Laterality effects in recognition and the GSR were obtained only in musicians as a function of the complexity of the task. It was concluded that styles of information processing assumed by the hemispheres are the consequence of an interaction between the stimulus and the state of the organism at the moment, such that the direction of laterality can change within a subject performing the same task depending upon its perceptual demand.