Attentional Alterations in Alcohol Dependence Are Underpinned by Specific Executive Control Deficits

作者：Maurage Pierre^*; de Timary Philippe; Billieux Joel; Collignon Marie; Heeren Alexandre

来源：Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research , 2014, 38(7): 2105-2112.

DOI：10.1111/acer.12444

• Alcohol Dependence
• Attentional Networks
• Attention Network Test
• Executive Control

Background: Attentional biases and deficits play a central role in the development and maintenance of alcohol dependence, but the underlying attentional processes accounting for these deficits have been very little explored. Importantly, the differential alterations across the 3 attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control) remain unclear in this pathology.
Methods: Thirty recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals and 30 paired controls completed the Attention Network Test, which allow exploring the attentional alterations specifically related to the 3 attentional networks.
Results: Alcohol-dependent individuals presented globally delayed reaction times compared to controls. More centrally, they showed a differential deficit across attention networks, with a preserved performance for alerting and orienting networks but impaired executive control (p < 0.001). This deficit was not related to psychopathological comorbidities but was positively correlated with the duration of alcohol-dependence habits, the number of previous detoxification treatments and the mean alcohol consumption before detoxification.
Conclusions: These results suggest that attentional alterations in alcohol dependence are centrally due to a specific alteration of executive control. Intervention programs focusing on executive components of attention should be promoted, and these results support the frontal lobe hypothesis.

• 出版日期2014-7