• Xavier Noël, M Colmant, Marial Van Der Linden, Antoine Bechara, Quentin Bullens, Catherine Hanak, and Paul Verbanck.
• Clinic of Addictions, Brugmann Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 4 place Van Gehuchten, 1020 Brussels, Belgium. xnoel@ulb.ac.be
• Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. 2006 Nov 1;30(11):1871-7.

ObjectiveAddicted people are characterized by enhanced attention for drug cues leading to drug use. However, there is little research on the component processes of attention in individuals with alcoholism. Here, we examine 2 distinct components of attention in abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals and social drinkers of alcohol, that is to say, the initial orienting to alcohol-related cues, and the maintenance of attention to them.MethodThe present study used an "alcohol" version of the visual probe detection task with alcohol-related or neutral pictures being presented briefly (i.e., 50 ms), to assess initial orienting, or longer (i.e., 500 and 1,250 ms), to assess the maintenance of attention.ResultsOnly alcoholic patients were faster in detecting a probe displayed immediately after pictures related to alcohol presented for 50 ms than in detecting the same probe replacing non-alcohol-related pictures. However, when pictures were presented for 500 ms, only social alcohol drinkers were faster in detecting the probe replacing alcohol scenes. At a stimulus of 1,250 ms duration, no group showed attentional bias toward alcohol cues. In addition, the severity of alcoholism measured by the total number of prior detoxification treatments was positively correlated with the attentional bias (or "attraction") for alcohol pictures presented for 50 ms.ConclusionsThese results show that, subsequent to initial visual orienting to alcohol-related cues, abstinent patients' attention was disengaged from these stimuli, thus suggesting a visual approach-disengagement attentional pattern. The influence of these findings on relapse was discussed.

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