The priming effect of alcohol pre-load on attentional bias to alcohol-related stimuli

Background: Previous research has shown attentional bias toward alcohol-related stimuli in non-dependent social drinkers. The aim of this study was to investigate whether attentional bias towards alcohol-related stimuli would increase after priming with either one of two doses of alcohol (0.3 or 0.6 g/kg) or placebo. Methods: Questionnaires were used to measure alcohol use, mood states, craving for alcohol and alcohol outcome expectancies. Attentional bias was assessed using a dot-probe detection task and a modified Stroop task. Results: Mood ratings showed dose dependent increases in positive mood after the alcohol pre-load. In the dot-probe task, all subjects showed an attentional bias towards the alcohol-related stimuli over neutral stationery-related items, although the attentional bias was significantly positive only at the low alcohol dose. In addition, a negative correlation was found between the attentional bias under the high alcohol dose and the alcohol use questionnaire score. In the Stroop task, a dose related effect of alcohol was found, with subjects making more errors for alcohol-related words under the high alcohol dose. Conclusions: These data support ideas derived from the incentive learning theories of drug addiction. Furthermore, these data suggest that history of alcohol exposure may influence the priming effects of an alcohol pre-load on attentional bias.