Cognitive Performance and Autonomic Reactivity in Abstinent Drug Abusers and Nonusers.

Abstract

In this study the authors compared the performance of abstinent drug abusers (n = 21) and nonuser control participants (n = 20) in neurocognitive and emotional functions by use of the Rogers Decision Making Task, Gambling Task, Emotional Stroop, impulsivity continuous performance task (CPT), and vigilance CPT. Skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR) monitoring was synchronized with task performance. Groups showed similar performance for vigilance, impulsivity, and emotional interference; however, drug abusers showed stronger SC responses. Drug abusers performed more poorly on the Gambling and Rogers Decision Making Tasks. When making risky decisions, drug abusers showed significantly less increase in SC activity than controls and exhibited lower HRs throughout performance on all tasks. In conclusion, complex tasks involving decision making, sensitivity to consequences, and emotional regulation discriminated between drug abusers and controls.

Mediators of the Stress–Substance–Use Relationship in Urban Male Adolescents

“…Social competence and risky decision-making may differ from these unrelated functions in terms of their complexity and the social context in which they occur or are triggered; the measures of impulsivity, delay of gratification, and emotional perception used in this study were without social context and elicited only very simple behaviors or reactions. Several other studies have found more complex neuropsychological and behavioral measures to more aptly characterize complex forms of psychopathology than simple measures (Fishbein et al, 2005a;Rogers & Robbins, 2001). Also, tobacco use was not predicted by any of these latent constructs, possibly due to the prevalence of smoking in this population and the overall attitude that smoking is not a "high-risk" behavior and is not generally used for its obvious psychoactive effects (although science has proved that attitude wrong on both counts for several decades).…”

Construct Validity of the Iowa Gambling Task

“…Although some findings indicate better performance, relative to nonabstinent substance users, following a period of abstinence (e.g., Bartzokis et al 2000), other research suggests that IGT impairment in polysubstance abusers is maintained even in abstinence, relative to normal controls (Fishbein et al 2005). In general, IGT performance among substance dependent individuals is impaired when compared to normal controls, and this impairment appears to last through a period of abstinence.…”

Heterogeneity in choices on Iowa Gambling Task: preference for infrequent–high magnitude punishment

“…from infrequent punishment decks B 0 and D 0 or frequent punishment decks A 0 and C 0 (Dunn et al 2006), a selective preference for deck B 0 has been observed (Lin et al 2007;van den Bos et al 2006). Studies have shown a selective preference or avoidance for decks B 0 and D 0 (especially deck B 0 ) among clinical patients and in some normal control groups (Bark et al 2005;Fishbein et al 2005;Ritter et al 2004;Shurman et al 2005;Toplak et al 2005;Wilder et al 1998). Choice of decks B 0 and D 0 is explained by a preference for low frequency punishment and high frequency reward (ratio of 'wins' to 'losses'), but not on the basis of magnitude of reward-punishment (Shurman et al 2005).…”