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Pabst A, d'Argembeau A, de Longueville X, de Timary P, Maurage P. Social episodic memory in severe alcohol use disorder: Positive encoding bias and negative bias in accessibility of interpersonal information. ALCOHOL, CLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 48:1336-1346. [PMID: 38925609 DOI: 10.1111/acer.15344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alterations in higher-order social cognition are well documented in individuals with severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). However, the basic mechanisms underpinning them are not well understood. This knowledge gap hampers the development of targeted therapeutic interventions. Here, we investigated whether individuals with SAUD show abnormalities in social episodic memory processes, which may represent relevant candidate mechanisms for alterations in social cognition. METHODS Recently detoxified patients with SAUD and matched healthy controls (HCs) completed two experimental tasks. We first used a Social Recognition Task in 40 SAUD patients and 40 HCs to measure the participants' ability to implicitly memorize the facial identity and emotion of novel interpersonal cues (i.e., dynamic facial expressions of anger and happiness). We then used a Social Memory Accessibility Task in 29 SAUD patients and 30 HCs) to measure participants' access to and fluency for already existing social memories by asking them to retrieve as many specific positive and negative interpersonal events as possible within equal time limits. RESULTS In the Social Recognition Task, we found that, compared to HCs, patients with SAUD had a globally lower recognition performance for the facial identities of novel social stimuli, but a preserved bias toward positive information. Conversely, in the social memory accessibility task, patients showed greater access to and fluency for negative interpersonal memories than controls (no group differences were observed for positive ones), resulting in a negative accessibility bias. CONCLUSIONS This exploration of episodic social memory in individuals with SAUD showed (1) a preserved bias for the encoding of positive versus negative novel social information, and (2) greater access to negative than positive interpersonal memories. These results enhance our understanding of socio-affective processing in individuals with SAUD and identify social memory alterations that may contribute to social cognition and interpersonal difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Pabst
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Arnaud d'Argembeau
- Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Laboratory (PsyNCog), University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | | | - Philippe de Timary
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Department of Adult Psychiatry, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Pierre Maurage
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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Pabst A, Gautier M, Maurage P. Hostile attributional biases in severe alcohol use disorder: replication, gender specificity, and mechanistic insights. Alcohol Alcohol 2024; 59:agae010. [PMID: 38458649 DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agae010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2023] [Revised: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 02/02/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024] Open
Abstract
AIMS Despite their importance in the emergence and persistence of severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD), social cognition impairments remain understudied in this population. Hostile attributional biases (HAB), a key component of social cognition, may be involved in interpersonal problems and SAUD maintenance. However, current evidence for HAB in SAUD is highly preliminary, as it relies on a single study based on a small sample and on a task that cannot dissociate increased hostile from reduced benign attributions. We therefore used an improved methodology to further characterize this bias and disentangle underlying mechanisms. In addition, we explored potential gender differences. METHOD A total of 56 patients (28 women) diagnosed with SAUD and 66 (27 women) demographically matched controls completed the Word-Sentence Association Paradigm-Hostility, which provides a valid, spontaneous, and relatively implicit assessment of both hostile and benign social attributions related to ambiguous situations. They also completed self-report measures of psychopathology and interpersonal problems. RESULTS At the group-level, patients with SAUD presented higher HAB than controls, without group differences for benign attributions. Gender analyses revealed that this effect selectively emerged in men with SAUD. Further, patients' benign attributions did not differ from their hostile attributions. Finally, HAB (not benign attributions) were associated with interpersonal problems and state anxiety in patients. CONCLUSIONS The association between SAUD and HAB at the group level is genuine and replicable across samples and tasks. This association may further selectively emerge in men. Our results also confirm the functional significance of HAB in SAUD, and point to potential mechanisms and clinical recommendations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Pabst
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Mado Gautier
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Pierre Maurage
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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Guo L, Huang C, Lu J, Wu X, Shan H, Chen T, Shao S, Li X, Du M, Du J, Jiang H, Deng M, Wen X, Zhu R, Zhong N, Su H, Zhao M. Decreased inter-brain synchronization in the right middle frontal cortex in alcohol use disorder during social interaction: An fNIRS hyperscanning study. J Affect Disord 2023; 329:573-580. [PMID: 36828147 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.02.072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/17/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a widespread mental disorder and has thrust a heavy burden on the health system all over the world. Social cognition and function are reported to be impaired in AUD, but its neural mechanism is rarely investigated. The current study attempts to fill this gap. METHODS 28 subjects with AUD and 36 healthy controls (HC) were recruited in this study and were paired into 14 AUD dyads and 18 HC dyads. The drinking problems, depression, anxiety, and impulsivity of subjects were measured. Each dyad completed cooperation and competition tasks with simultaneous frontal functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning recording. The inter-brain synchronization (IBS) in the frontal cortex was calculated for each dyad and compared between AUD and HC. The significantly altered IBS in AUD was correlated with clinical measures to explore possible influencing factors. RESULTS The IBS in the right middle frontal cortex was significantly decreased in AUD under both cooperation (t = -2.257, P = 0.028) and competition (t = -2.488, P = 0.016) task. The IBS during the cooperation task in the right middle frontal cortex in AUD was negatively correlated with non-planning impulsivity (r = -0.673, P = 0.006). LIMITATIONS This study used cross-sectional data, which limited the causal inference. The synchronization between other brain regions besides the frontal cortex should be further explored in patients with AUD. CONCLUSION The current study could provide new insights into the neural mechanism of social dysfunction in AUD and facilitate clinical intervention in future practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Guo
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Chuanning Huang
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Jing Lu
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaojun Wu
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Haidi Shan
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianzhen Chen
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Shuxin Shao
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoou Li
- College of Medical Instruments, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China; School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China
| | - Mingfeng Du
- Substance Dependence Department, The Third People's Hospital of Fuyang, Fuyang, 236000, China
| | - Jiang Du
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Haifeng Jiang
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Mengqiao Deng
- Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Xifeng Wen
- Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Ruiming Zhu
- Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Na Zhong
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China.
| | - Hang Su
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China.
| | - Min Zhao
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
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Pabst A, Bollen Z, Masson N, Billaux P, de Timary P, Maurage P. An eye-tracking study of biased attentional processing of emotional faces in severe alcohol use disorder. J Affect Disord 2023; 323:778-787. [PMID: 36529408 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social cognition impairments in severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD) are increasingly established. However, fundamental aspects of social cognition, and notably the attentional processing of socio-affective information, remain unexplored, limiting our understanding of underlying mechanisms. Here, we determined whether patients with SAUD show attentional biases to specific socio-affective cues, namely emotional faces. METHOD In a modified dot-probe paradigm, 30 patients with SAUD and 30 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) were presented with pairs of neutral-emotional (angry, disgusted, happy, sad) faces while having their eye movements recorded. Indices of early/automatic (first fixations, latency to first fixations) and later/controlled (number of fixations, dwell-time) processes were computed. RESULTS Patients with SAUD did not differ from HC in their attention to angry/disgusted/sad vs. neutral faces. However, patients with SAUD fixated/dwelled less on happy vs. neutral faces in the first block of stimuli than HC, who presented an attentional bias to happy faces. LIMITATIONS Sample-size was determined to detect medium-to-large effects and subtler ones may have been missed. Further, our cross-sectional design provides no explanation as to whether the evidenced biases precede or are a consequence of SAUD. CONCLUSIONS These results extend the social cognition literature in SAUD to the attentional domain, by evidencing the absence of a controlled attentional bias toward positive social cues in SAUD. This may reflect reduced sensitivity to social reward and could contribute to higher order social cognition difficulties and social dysfunction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Pabst
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology research group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Zoé Bollen
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology research group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Nicolas Masson
- Numerical Cognition Group, Psychological Sciences Research Institute and Neuroscience Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Cognitive Science and Assessment Institute, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - Pauline Billaux
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology research group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Philippe de Timary
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology research group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Department of Adult Psychiatry, Saint-Luc Academic Hospital & Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Pierre Maurage
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology research group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
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Li S, Zhang D, Liu J, Su H, Guo L, Wu Q, Du J, Jiang H, Zhong N, Huang C, Chen T, Zhao M. The preliminary efficacy of virtual agent-assisted intelligent rehabilitation treatment (Echo app v2.0) in patients with alcohol use disorders: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Digit Health 2023; 9:20552076231219432. [PMID: 38425746 PMCID: PMC10902404 DOI: 10.1177/20552076231219432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most common substance use disorders. People with AUD are in great need of highly accessible and comprehensive management, involving medicine, exercise, and psychotherapy. However, due to limited resources, providing comprehensive treatment for every patient is challenging. Virtual agent-assisted intelligent rehabilitation treatment can improve the accessibility of comprehensive management. Objectives This randomized controlled trial aims to test whether the virtual agent-assisted intelligent rehabilitation treatment (Echo-app-v2.0) plus treatment as usual (TAU) has greater efficacy than only TAU in AUD. Methods One hundred participants with AUD will be recruited and randomly assigned to either TAU or virtual agent-assisted intelligent rehabilitation treatment plus TAU based on the 1:1 ratio. The virtual agent-assisted intelligent rehabilitation treatment is delivered by the Echo app v2.0 developed by our research team. Participants will be assessed at baseline, week 4 of treatment, one month, and three months after the end of treatment. The primary outcome is the participants' craving for alcohol, measured by Visual Analogue Scale. Other outcomes include the use of alcohol, motivation for treatment, coping style, depression, anxiety, impulsivity, stress, and sleep quality. Discussion The virtual agent, with vivid human image, high privacy, and the ability to interact with users, has the potential to play an important role in the delivery of digital psychotherapy. The development of Echo app v2.0 has the possibility to raise the availability of comprehensive treatment for people with AUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuo Li
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Dapeng Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry, Fuyang Third People's Hospital, Fuyang, China
| | - Jingyang Liu
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Hang Su
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Lei Guo
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Qianying Wu
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Jiang Du
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Haifeng Jiang
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Na Zhong
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chuanning Huang
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianzhen Chen
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Min Zhao
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai, China
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