Neuroeconomics integrates concepts and methods from psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience to understand the neurobiological foundations of decision making, and has been increasingly applied to understanding alcohol use disorder (AUD). A novel application of neuroeconomics is the study of alcohol demand, or the value of alcohol as measured by cost-benefit preferences. Alcohol demand paradigms have considerable ecological validity by measuring the impact of internal and external influences on alcohol decision-making, such as price, environmental cues, affective states, or external contingencies. Behaviorally, alcohol demand is elevated among individuals with higher levels of alcohol misuse and predicts treatment response. Alcohol demand also exhibits state-like properties, including increases following exposure to alcohol-related cues and decreases in the presence of significant next-day responsibilities. The overall goal of the proposed studies is to characterize the neural activity that subserves these established behavioral findings using a novel functional MRI paradigm.
The first aim i s to examine the patterns of neural activation underlying increases in the value of alcohol in response to alcohol cues. To do so, the first study will use a within-subjects design to identify differences in neural activity associated with demand decisions following a validated in- scanner cue exposure protocol consisting of exposure to neutral beverage cues and exposure to alcohol beverage cues in a sample of adult heavy drinkers.
The second aim i s to investigate the changes in neural activity associated with decreases in the value of alcohol in response to next day responsibilities. To do so, a second study will use a within-subjects design, comparing demand-related neural activity following a standard instructional set and an instructional set that imposes a significant work-related responsibility the next day. Using a novel neuroeconomics approach, these studies combine a highly ecologically-valid alcohol demand paradigm with two experimental manipulations that model clinically-relevant influences on drinking decisions. Studying these contextual influences may help clarify the neural signatures that underlie drinking moderation vs. unconstrained drinking, and how these processes are impacted by AUD. If successful, these studies will provide a foundation for examining neural predictors of successful recovery or response to treatment vs. relapse. More broadly, findings from these studies have high potential to significantly enhance the clinical relevance of alcohol neuroscience.
Alcohol use disorder confers a massive public health burden and clinical advances depend on basic advances in biobehavioral research. In two studies, the proposed research will apply a neuroeconomic approach to understand brain activity patterns associated with increases and decreases in the reinforcing value of alcohol in the context of two clinically-relevant factors: a) increases in the value of alcohol in the presence of alcohol- related beverage cues; and b) decreases in the value of alcohol in the presence of a significant next day responsibility (e.g., work-related activity). Determining the neural signatures of change in alcohol demand in response to these real-world external influences has high potential to increase our understanding of how the brain supports decisions to modulate drinking in real-world drinking situations.
