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The aim of this meta-analysis is to examine the alcohol priming (acute intoxication) effect on subsequent motivation to consume alcohol. Doing this will allow us to determine the optimal priming doses, and time of testing, for future research. There are a number of ways to measure enhanced motivation for alcohol: self-report measures of desire or craving for alcohol, and behavioural measures of alcohol value. The latter measure can be broken down in to consumption (e.g. ad libitum consumption), strength of operant response for access to alcohol (e.g. how many times a person will press a button to gain access to alcohol) and relative response rate between alcohol and another commodity (e.g. how many times will someone press a button to gain access to alcohol compared with pressing a button to receive chocolate), or a simple choice between alcohol and a non-alcohol commodity.

This project aims to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between screen engagement, executive function, and sleep in UK adolescents, using the Millennium Cohort Study. This study will classify the frequently used term ‘screen use’ into more nuanced categories to determine if there are different associations between type of screen use, executive function, and sleep.

This project aims to examine the relationships between mobile phone use (‘screen time’), executive functioning, and sleep quality in young adults aged 18 - 35 years.

This is the OSF page for the 2021-2022 Alcohol Research Consortium which investigates the stigma ascribed to problematic substance use. Here you will find the Stage 1 preprint, materials, and data, as well as supporting information associated with this study.

Stage 1 IPA at PCI RR

The study will determine whether the subjective value of alcohol can be manipulated using value inputs identified in Berkman et al. (2017). The current study will do this by randomly allocating a participant to one of two contexts (neutral lab or bar lab) and one of two social influences (confederate enjoys drink vs doesn't enjoy drink). Following the experimental manipulation the participant will complete several measures of value - Concurrent choice task, Brief assessment of Alcohol Demand and Ad libitum consumption of alcohol.

This is the OSF page for the Registered Report "The labels and models used to describe problematic substance use impact discrete elements of stigma: A Registered Report". Here you will find the Stage 1 and Stage 2 preprint, materials, code, and data, as well as supporting information associated with this study. Any reuse of this project's material should be cited appropriately under a CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International license.

AIMS: To generate and pilot unfinished sentences, based on the Hayling Task of disinhibition, which could be completed with alcohol or non-alcohol words. To determine whether drinking habits influenced responses on the new sentences, which may advance understanding of the cognitive processes underlying alcohol-related behaviours.METHODS: Three phases: I-Generation of appropriate sentences (via email correspondence); II-Sentence completion to establish proportion of alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related responses; III-A Hayling-style task using the sentences (laboratory-based). During the Hayling task, sentences were completed with the first word that came to mind (initiation task), and with a word that did not make semantic sense (inhibition task). In Phase III, the alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) was also completed to determine whether drinking habits were related to responses.RESULTS: Fifteen sentences were generated and tested. Compared with low hazardous drinkers, higher hazardous drinkers gave more alcohol-related responses; persisted in giving alcohol responses in the inhibition task; and were slower to make non-alcohol-related responses. A positive correlation was found between AUDIT score and number of alcohol-related responses.CONCLUSIONS: A new alcohol-related sentence-completion tool, based upon the Hayling disinhibition task, was developed and piloted. Responses on the task were associated with measures of alcohol use disorders. The task can be used in research investigating the processes underlying the acute and chronic effects of alcohol, such as attentional bias and disinhibition. In future, the task could be used in conjunction with non-alcohol-related sentence completion tasks to investigate general and alcohol-specific processes of disinhibition.

Acute doses of alcohol can increase subsequent craving and alcohol consumption. This ���alcohol priming effect��� may be an important determinant of both relapse among alcohol-dependent individuals, and binge drinking behaviours among social drinkers. This thesis aimed to investigate potential mediators and moderators of the alcohol priming effect. Current models have proposed alcohol-induced impairments of inhibitory control to underlie the alcohol priming effect (Field et al, 2010). However, there is currently inconclusive evidence for this claim. The overarching aim of this thesis was to, therefore, clarify the extent to which acute alcohol consumption indirectly affects subsequent consumption via these impairments. Each experimental study included a measure of inhibitory control (a stop-signal task), administration of alcohol and a measure of ad libitum alcohol consumption. This data was then synthesised in chapter 7. Overall, there was no effect of alcohol on inhibitory control and, therefore, inhibitory impairments did not mediate alcohol priming. This thesis also investigated two potential novel moderators of the alcohol priming effect; the role of beliefs about alcohol���s acute effects (chapter 6) and the effect of social influences (chapters 3, 4 and 5). Belief���s regarding the effects of alcohol were not found to affect ad lib alcohol consumption but did affect alcohol-induced impairments of inhibitory control. In addition, the alcohol priming effect had little effect on drinking when in the presence of others. Notably, alcohol consumption was increased in the presence of others relative to when alone (chapter 4) and when exposed to a heavy, relative to a light, drinking friend (chapter 5) regardless of whether a priming dose had been consumed. In addition, the association between self-reported peer and personal alcohol consumption was moderated by urgency (one facet of impulsivity) but only when drinking induced disinhibition was low (chapter 3). Overall these findings suggest the importance of the alcohol priming effect as a determinant of binge drinking is minimal. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the effect of alcohol on inhibition is exaggerated in the current literature. Previous findings may have been influenced by individual beliefs regarding the acute effect of alcohol. Other people���s drinking does; however, appear to exert a consistent effect on personal alcohol consumption. Models of alcohol priming require considerable adjustment in light of these findings.

The current thesis aimed to explore the relationship between disinhibition and alcohol consumption in non-dependent drinkers. Specifically, whether (dis)inhibition can be considered a ‘state’ variable, which is responsive to motivational biases, cues and training. It was examined whether any fluctuations in (dis)inhibition could influence subsequent ad-libitum alcohol consumption, in sober individuals (de Wit, 2009). Furthermore, the effects of beliefs about disinhibition, exclusively in relation to alcohol-seeking, were also examined with respect to possible effects on alcohol-seeking. These general research questions were examined in a heavy drinking, student population. Chapter One discussed in detail the relationship between disinhibition and alcohol consumption by examining evidence from relevant models of addiction. Chapter Two described the general methods used in the experimental chapters of the thesis. In the first experimental chapter (Chapter Three) individuals were primed with different motivational biases on how to respond on a stop-signal task, before ad-libitum consumption was measured. Different motivational biases led to group differences in inhibition performance, it was demonstrated that a restrained mental set led to a reduction in alcohol consumption in the laboratory. Expanding this finding, Chapter Four examined the effect of these motivational biases on neuropsychophysiological measures (Event Related Potentials and Source dipole analyses) of inhibitory control; associations between inhibition indices and ad-libitum consumption were discussed. Chapter Five set out to examine whether inhibitory control could be trained specifically to alcohol cues, and whether this training could serve to reduce alcohol consumption in the laboratory (Experiment One and Two) and outside the laboratory (Experiment One) in response to emerging research (Houben et al 2011a). Two different types of inhibition training, motor and oculomotor, were compared in this chapter. Results demonstrated some success for motor, but not oculomotor inhibition, in both training behaviour and reductions in alcohol consumption, highlighting the fundamental differences in these constructs. Chapter Six examined whether alcohol cues could cause disinhibition in heavy social drinkers, but found no evidence for cue-related disinhibition. However, some evidence for disinhibition and cue-reactivity was established and possible methodological issues discussed. In the final experimental chapter (Chapter Seven) restraint beliefs were examined in relation to ad-libitum alcohol consumption. It was found that beliefs could influence ad-libitum alcohol-seeking, however results were at first glance paradoxical to behavioural research. The overall results of this thesis offer some of the first experimental support for the causal relationship between state disinhibition and alcohol consumption in sober, non-dependent individuals. Support was offered for the theories of addiction that postulate the association between disinhibition and alcohol consumption, specifically recent models that suggest disinhibition is a state which can influence drinking behaviour. Finally, support for recent theories that suggest targeting controlled processes may serve to reduce alcohol consumption in populations at high risk for alcohol abuse.