Research in addiction is beginning to focus on social neuroscience areas to explore the role of social interactions and environmental contexts in alcohol and drug dependence. To further this work, we proposed to explore the impact of environmental context and proximal alcohol cues in craving and dependence using virtual reality cue reactivity (VRCR). The impact of environmental context and proximal alcohol cues on craving will be tested in a cue reactivity experiment of 200 adult alcohol dependent drinkers. Assignment will be randomized to four environmental context groups who will be exposed to both neutral and alcohol proximal cues. Physiological arousal, subjective craving, attention to cues, relevance of contexts, realism of context, alcohol expectancy and mood state will be compared between groups and three hypotheses concerning the main effects of environmental context and proximal cues will be tested. Results will contribute to the conditioning theory of craving and the effect of environmental context in alcohol and drug dependence. The study results will provide additional information relevant to the generalizability of extinction and other significant issues (reinstatement) in cue reactivity research. Future research building upon the current study can focus on the impact of social interactions across contexts on craving and relapse using VRCR. The ability to manipulate environmental context and social interactions in the lab will provide new methods to study the interaction of context and social influences in alcohol and drug use.
Data from the proposed study will offer information on the role of environmental context in alcohol craving. The effects of alcohol cues and environmental context on craving, physiological reactivity, and attention to cues will be assessed. This study will provide an ecologically validated set of results that will stimulate new behaviorally based research on the treatment of alcohol and drug dependence.
