Sensory evaluation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli: psychophysical assessment of stimulus intensity

Research on reactivity to alcohol cues yielded conflicting results. While some authors report differences in subjective or physiological responses to drug-related stimuli between addicts and healthy controls, other researchers found no group differences in response patterns. Moreover, a dissociation of self-report and psychophysiological measures of cue reactivity is often observed. To some extent, this might be due to confounding stimulus type (neutral vs. drug-related) and stimulus intensity in cue reactivity research. The purpose of the present study is to match alcoholic and nonalcoholic stimuli according to their empirically assessed intensity. Stimulus intensity is estimated by magnitude estimation. Results clearly indicate that alcohol-related cues differ considerably from water and other neutral stimuli with respect to perceived intensity. Moreover, estimation of stimulus intensity depends on mode of presentation (smell vs. combined smell and taste). Results of previous cue reactivity studies in the alcohol field might have been affected in different degrees by confounding stimulus type and intensity.