Neural and behavioural correlates of addiction

Chair

Yavor Yalachkov

Abstract

Substance abuse and dependence have a particularly strong impact on public health. Nevertheless, their underpinnings are still poorly understood. This symposium has the aim to present recent studies on the neural and behavioural correlates of addiction, which can provide a better insight into the mechanisms of this disorder. Reactivity to drug-related stimuli and modulatory influences on its expression are the main topics of the talks. The presentations address attentional bias in heavy drinkers and its modulation by the perceived availability or priming dose of alcohol (Field), habitual and automatized mechanisms of nicotine dependence (Yalachkov et al.), formation of appetitive and consummatory responses to artificial stimuli paired with smoke reinforcement (Winkler et al.) as well as reactivity to smoking stimuli from different phases of the consumption ritual and its modulation through attention (Stippekohl et al.). Bringing together a wide range of methodological approaches in this symposium provides us with a more differentiated view of the factors which play an important role in addiction.

Beiträge

• Attentional bias for alcohol cues in heavy drinkers: the effects of perceived alcohol availability and acute alcohol intoxication
  Field, M.
• Cue reactivity in smokers: effects of the temporal stage of cues and focus of attention
  Stippekohl, B., Winkler, M., Mucha, R. F., Pauli, P., Vaitl, D., and Stark, R.
• Experimentally produced cues for smoking elicit preparatory responses in healthy smokers
  Winkler, M., Kraiss, A., Weyers, P., Mucha, R. F., Stippekohl, B., Stark, R., and Pauli, P.
• Neural and behavioural correlates of habitual mechanisms in nicotine dependence
  Yalachkov, Y., Kaiser, J., and Naumer, M. J.