On multifaceted inhibitory control in betel-quid-dependent chewers

Abstract

Background: Betel-quid (BQ) is regarded as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. We asked whether BQ chewers have worse inhibitory control, in terms of three separate inhibitory control functions: propotent response inhibition, resistance to distractor interference, and resistance to proactive interference (PI). Methods: The antisaccade task, the flanler task and the recent-probe task are employed to measure the three inhibition functions, respectively. BQ dependent chewers with concurrent use of tobacco and alcohol (BQD), tobacco and alcohol user controls (TAC), and healthy controls (HC) were included. Results: We found that the BQD group did not differ from TAC and HC in prepotent response inhibition, measured by the antisaccade task, and resistance to distractor interference, measured by the flanker task. Finally, the BQD group had a worse resistance to PI than the two control groups, measured by the recent-probe task. Conclusions: When discussing from the perspective of multifacted inhibitory control, we can fully understand the inhibitory control ability of BQ chewers.