Elliott, Morgan;
Terrett, Gill;
Curran, H Valerie;
De Bono, Natalie;
Rendell, Peter G;
Henry, Julie D;
(2022)
Deficits in episodic future thinking following acute alcohol consumption.
Psychopharmacology
, 239
pp. 2445-2455.
10.1007/s00213-022-06136-2.
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Abstract
RATIONALE: Acute alcohol consumption adversely affects many cognitive abilities, including episodic memory and executive functioning. However, no study to date has tested whether these acute effects of alcohol also extend to episodic future thinking (EFT). This is a surprising omission given that EFT refers to the ability to imagine oneself experiencing the future, a highly adaptive ability that has been implicated in many important functional behaviours. EFT is also thought to impose demands on episodic memory and executive control. OBJECTIVES: The current study was designed to provide the first test of whether a moderate dose of alcohol influences EFT and whether any observed EFT difficulties are secondary to broader problems in episodic memory and executive functioning. Sex differences in EFT following acute alcohol consumption were also examined. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-four healthy adult social drinkers were recruited and randomly assigned to either the alcohol (n = 61) or placebo (n = 63) condition. Participants were administered a dose of 0.6 g/kg alcohol or a matched placebo drink. RESULTS: Relative to the placebo condition, EFT was impaired by acute alcohol consumption. This impairment was underpinned by broader difficulties with episodic memory, but not executive functioning. There were no sex differences in EFT performance following acute alcohol use. CONCLUSION: These data provide novel insights into the effects of acute alcohol consumption on EFT and the broader cognitive mechanisms that contribute to these difficulties. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for understanding many of the maladaptive behaviours commonly associated with acute alcohol use.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Deficits in episodic future thinking following acute alcohol consumption |
| Location: | Germany |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00213-022-06136-2 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-022-06136-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Neurosciences, Pharmacology & Pharmacy, Psychiatry, Neurosciences & Neurology, Acute alcohol consumption, Episodic future thinking, Neurocognitive function, Autobiographical interview, Sex differences, MENTAL TIME-TRAVEL, FORESIGHT DEFICITS, PROSPECTIVE MEMORY, SOCIAL DRINKERS, SIMULATION, DRINKING, QUESTIONNAIRE, CONSEQUENCES, PERFORMANCE, IMPAIRMENT |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154731 |
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