Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by both impaired inhibitory control and heightened cue reactivity, including enhanced craving and drinking urges in response to alcohol-related stimuli. The interaction between these two mechanisms is thought to be crucial in the maintenance of addiction and relapse. The present study used a newly developed alcohol-related Go/NoGo-task to investigate how exposure to alcohol-related cues affects neural processing of inhibitory control in subjects with AUD.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was recorded during performance of a Go/NoGo task, which incorporated alcohol-related and neutral stimuli as Go and NoGo trials in abstinent AUD patients and healthy controls (HC).

AUD patients exhibited increased activation of a fronto-striatal-parietal network during successful response inhibition relative to HC. Within the AUD group, activation for alcohol-related (relative to neutral) inhibition was enhanced in regions including bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right medial frontal and precentral gyri, and right putamen. Activation differences in the right ACC increased with subjective craving.

These preliminary findings suggest that AUD patients need to recruit enhanced neuronal resources for successful inhibition. In parts of the inhibitory network, this hyperactivation is enhanced when inhibition takes place in an alcohol-related context. Activation in the ACC increased stronger in patients experiencing high craving, possibly because of an enhanced conflict.

The task introduced here thus allows to investigate neural processing of alcohol-related inhibition in an AUD sample. The preliminary results suggest that exposure to alcohol-related cues intensifies the demand on an already challenged inhibitory system in recently abstinent patients with AUD.

酒精使用障碍 (AUD) 的特征是抑制控制受损和提示反应性增强，包括对酒精相关刺激的渴望和饮酒冲动增强。这两种机制之间的相互作用被认为对于维持成瘾和复发至关重要。本研究使用新开发的与酒精相关的 Go/NoGo 任务来研究暴露于酒精相关线索如何影响 AUD 受试者抑制控制的神经处理。

在执行 Go/NoGo 任务期间记录了功能磁共振成像 (fMRI)，该任务将酒精相关和中性刺激纳入禁欲 AUD 患者和健康对照 (HC) 的 Go 和 NoGo 试验。

相对于 HC，AUD 患者在成功的反应抑制期间表现出额-纹状体-顶叶网络的激活增加。在 AUD 组中，酒精相关（相对于中性）抑制的激活在包括双侧前扣带皮层 (ACC)、右侧内侧额叶和中央前回以及右侧壳核在内的区域中得到增强。右侧 ACC 的激活差异随着主观渴望而增加。

这些初步发现表明，AUD 患者需要募集增强的神经元资源才能成功抑制。在部分抑制网络中，当抑制发生在与酒精相关的环境中时，这种过度激活会增强。在经历高渴望的患者中，ACC 的激活增加得更强烈，这可能是因为冲突加剧。

因此，这里介绍的任务允许研究 AUD 样本中酒精相关抑制的神经处理。初步结果表明，在最近戒酒的 AUD 患者中，暴露于与酒精相关的线索会加剧对已经受到挑战的抑制系统的需求。