wilcockson_Alcohol usage predicts HP R2_TW_accepted.pdf (582.21 kB)
Alcohol usage predicts holistic perception: A novel paradigm to explore addiction
journal contribution
posted on 2019-06-14, 08:48 authored by Edwin J. Burns, Thom WilcocksonThom WilcocksonHolistic perception is a special form of automatic and experience dependent processing that prioritises objects of interest through the visual system. We therefore speculated that higher levels of alcohol consumption may be associated with enhanced holistic perception for alcohol cues. In our first experiment, we confirmed this hypothesis by showing that increasing regular alcohol usage was associated with greater holistic perception of alcohol, but not non-alcohol, cues. We replicated this finding in a second experiment, but confirmed drink-specific holistic perception for lager cues was not predicted by experience with that drink, but general alcohol usage. In our final experiment when alcohol images were absent from the task, higher levels of alcohol consumption predicted decreased holistic perception for non-rewarding cues. Alcohol use is therefore linked to inverse alterations in holistic perception for alcohol versus non-alcohol cues, with the latter’s effects context dependent. We hypothesise that such inverse relationships may be due to limited cortical resources becoming reutilised for alcohol cues at the expense of other stimuli. Future work will be required to determine holistic perception’s role in maintaining addiction, its predictive value in successful abstinence, and its relationship with characteristics of addiction such as cue reactivity, attentional biases and personality traits.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Addictive BehaviorsVolume
99Citation
BURNS, E.J. and WILCOCKSON, T.D.W., 2019. Alcohol usage predicts holistic perception: A novel paradigm to explore addiction. Addictive Behaviors, Doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.05.024Publisher
Elsevier BVVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© ElsevierPublisher statement
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Addictive Behaviors and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.05.024Acceptance date
2019-05-20Publication date
2019-05-22Copyright date
2019ISSN
0306-4603Publisher version
Language
- en