A Comparative Event-Related Potentials Study between Alcohol Use Disorder, Gambling Disorder and Healthy Control Subjects through a Contextual Go/NoGo Task

Abstract

Many societies report a high number of people suffering from behavioral or substance-related addictions, such as gambling or alcohol. Despite psychotherapy, social support, withdrawal, or even medication, it is recognized throughout the world that recovering from an addiction is particularly challenging. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms triggering addictive disorders is therefore particularly relevant to optimizing addiction treatment. In the present study, we investigated whether or not patients suffering from gambling or alcohol use disorders are efficient at inhibiting their responses when their attention is attracted by a neutral, rewarding, or cueing context related to their own addiction (alcohol vs. gambling). Such behavioral and neural evidence may help clinicians to implement novel targeted intervention more suited to the individual needs of these patients