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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
A Protocol for Measuring Cue Reactivity in a Rat Model of Cocaine Use Disorder
Published on: June 18, 2018
Fixation time is a sensitive measure of cocaine cue attentional bias
Katherine R Marks1, Walter Roberts, William W Stoops
1Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology, Lexington, KY, USA.
Background And Aims:
Attentional bias has been demonstrated to a variety of substances. Evidence suggests that fixation time is a more direct measure of attentional bias than response time. The aims of this experiment were to demonstrate that fixation time during the visual probe task is a sensitive and stable measure of cocaine cue attentional bias in cocaine-using adults compared to controls.
Design:
A between-subject, repeated-measures experiment.
Setting:
An out-patient research unit.
Participants:
Fifteen cocaine using and 15 non-cocaine-using adults recruited from the community.
Measurements:
Participants completed a visual probe task with eye tracking and a modified Stroop during two experimental sessions.
Findings:
A significant interaction between cue type and group (F = 13.5; P < 0.05) indicated that cocaine users, but not controls, displayed an attentional bias to cocaine-related images as measured by fixation time. There were no changes in the magnitude of attentional bias across sessions (F = 3.4; P > 0.05) and attentional bias correlated with self-reported life-time cocaine use (r = 0.64, P < 0.05). Response time on the visual probe (F = 1.1; P > 0.05) as well as on the modified Stroop (F = 0.1; P > 0.05) failed to detect an attentional bias.
Conclusions:
Fixation time on cocaine-related stimuli (propensity to remain focused on the stimulus) is a sensitive and stable measure of cocaine cue attentional bias in cocaine-using adults.
