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Affective impairments in binge drinking: Investigation through emotional facial expression decoding
Séverine Lannoy1, Valérie Dormal1, Mélanie Brion1
1Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Comprehensive Psychiatry
|March 28, 2018
Summary
Young adults who engage in binge drinking show significant deficits in recognizing emotions. These emotional processing difficulties are linked to alcohol consumption and may contribute to alcohol dependence.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Addiction Research
Background:
- Binge drinking is prevalent among young adults and linked to psychological and cerebral deficits.
- While cognitive effects are studied, emotional processing in binge drinkers is less understood.
- Understanding emotional deficits offers insight into alcohol dependence progression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate emotional recognition abilities in young adult binge drinkers.
- To determine if binge drinking specifically impacts the processing of basic emotions.
- To explore the link between emotional deficits and alcohol consumption patterns.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 46 university students (23 binge drinkers, 23 controls).
- Administered a visual emotional recognition task involving six basic emotions.
- Measured accuracy scores and detection thresholds for emotion identification.
Main Results:
- Binge drinkers exhibited lower accuracy in decoding all tested emotions compared to controls.
- Binge drinkers had increased detection thresholds, indicating reduced sensitivity to emotional cues.
- Emotional recognition difficulties were specifically associated with alcohol consumption patterns.
Conclusions:
- Binge drinking is associated with widespread emotional processing impairments.
- These findings support a continuum from binge drinking to alcohol dependence.
- Emotional deficits may contribute to the onset and maintenance of excessive alcohol use via social distress.
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