Emotion-word processing difficulties in abstinent alcoholics with and without lifetime externalizing disorders

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Long-term abstinent alcoholics (LTAA) may have persistent difficulties processing emotion-laden stimuli.
• Externalizing (EXT) disorders, including antisocial personality disorder and ADHD, are common comorbidities in alcoholism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate emotion-word processing deficits in LTAA, with and without a history of EXT disorders.
• To determine if these deficits are specific to emotional stimuli or part of broader processing impairments.

Main Methods:

• 121 participants (38 controls, 51 LTAA without EXT, 32 LTAA with EXT) completed affective go/no-go (AGNG) and lexical decision-making (LDM) tasks.
• Performance was measured by signal discriminability (d') and mean response times (mcRT) for emotional and non-emotional words.

Main Results:

• LTAA exhibited poorer lexical decision-making (lower d', slower mcRT) compared to controls.
• LTAA showed impaired emotion-word detection (lower AGNG d') compared to controls, partially linked to LDM performance.
• Lower AGNG d' in LTAA correlated with earlier alcohol initiation, higher lifetime alcohol use, and EXT history.

Conclusions:

• Emotion-word processing is impaired in LTAA, independent of general lexical processing deficits.
• This specific emotional processing impairment is exacerbated by greater lifetime alcohol burden and comorbid EXT diagnoses.