Mark T Fillmore

..The present research examined how an expectancy-induced adaptive response could reduce the impairing effects of alcohol on response activation, while at the same time increase its impairing effect on response inhibition...

..The findings highlight the complex nature of stimulant effects on human behavior and the utility of performance tasks as models of complex behavioral and cognitive functions...

..The present study compared men and women in the degree to which a moderate dose of alcohol impaired their inhibitory control at comparable blood alcohol concentrations...

..These findings are consistent with a capacity limitation account of alcohol impairment that could involve central or output stages of information processing...

..The task could be useful for evaluating performance-impairing effects of other CNS depressant drugs, as well as complementing assessment batteries for research and instruction in studies of motor learning and human performance...

..Identification of environmental conditions in which stimulants are likely to disinhibit behavior could provide insight into mechanisms that underlie the association between long-term stimulant use and poor impulse control...

..These findings are important because they identify a specific disinhibiting effect of cocaine that could help explain the documented association between long-term cocaine use and poor impulse control...

..g., cocaine and nicotine)...

..These findings are important because they identify a specific deficit involving behavioral inhibition that could contribute to cocaine abuse, and explain its association with other disorders of self-regulation, such as ADHD...

..The study tested the hypothesis that drinkers who expected an antagonist effect of caffeine would display greater alcohol impairment than those who expected no antagonist effect...

..The evidence supports a resource limitation account that argues that alcohol reduces capacity to process information required for execution and suppression of responses...

..The current study provides a useful model to investigate the effects of other drugs reported to have performance-enhancing effects...

..Moreover, alcohol might impair the performance of drivers with ADHD in an additive fashion that could considerably compromise their driving skill even at blood alcohol concentrations below the legal limit...

..These findings extend work highlighting the role of disinhibition in ADHD, and contrast recent work suggesting divergence between ADHD subtypes...

..This study examined the expression of acute alcohol tolerance to impaired behavioral control in terms of changes in a drinker's ability to activate and inhibit behavioral responses as BAC ascended and declined following a dose...

..By contrast, non-binge drinkers showed no acute tolerance...

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..The present finding of a heightened disinhibitory reaction to alcohol in binge drinkers may help explain the link between impulsivity and problem drinking at a more fundamental level of behavioral control...

..While the personality dimensions of novelty seeking and sensation seeking are associated with drug abuse vulnerability, the mechanisms associated with this vulnerability remain obscure...

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..The results highlight the complexity of drug interactions between alcohol and caffeine...

..The results suggest that attentional processes dependent on intentional inhibitory control may be more susceptible to the impairing effects of a moderate dose of alcohol than processes dependent on automatic inhibition...

..The study demonstrates potentially serious disruptions to driving performance as a function of alcohol intoxication and response conflict, and points to inhibitory control as an important underlying mechanism...

..The findings highlight reward- and cognitive-based mechanisms by which sensation-seeking could operate to increase risk for alcohol abuse...

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..The findings highlight potential differences in how activational and inhibitory aspects of behavioral control respond to drug interactions...

..Thus, unlike controls, valid cues offered little protection from the disinhibiting effects of alcohol in drinkers with ADHD, suggesting an increased sensitivity to alcohol impairment of inhibitory control...

..These findings indicate that an acute alcohol dose increases attentional bias in adults with ADHD. Further, attentional bias appears to be a predictor of ad libitum consumption in this group...

..This research examined acute alcohol effects on simulated driving performance and subjective ratings of intoxication and driving ability in binge and nonbinge drinkers...

..Results suggest that RTSD is linked to distractibility among adults with ADHD and support the use of RTSD as a valid measure of inattention in ADHD...

..CONCLUSIONS: Response disengagement affords some protection against alcohol-induced impairment of inhibition, indicating that not all aspects of motor processing requiring inhibition are equally impaired by alcohol...

..The findings contribute to growing evidence that suggests cocaine and alcohol use could produce broad inhibitory impairments that increase the risk for learning deficits and poor impulse control...

..Reasons for the asymmetry are unclear, and likely involve differences in mechanisms by which each treatment impairs psychomotor function...

..These results highlight the heterogeneity of inhibitory control processes and their differential relations to different facets of impulsivity...

..Visual probe tasks are often used to measure attentional bias (AB) towards alcohol-related images in drinkers, but little is known about the effect of the properties of the images used in this task: specifically, image complexity...

..Specifically, alcohol-induced impairment of inhibitory control could compromise the drinker's ability to stop the self-administration of alcohol, increasing the risk of binge drinking...

..These findings suggest a dissociation between automatic and intentional inhibitory deficits in adults with ADHD...

..Further, the possibility that this relation might be more pronounced in groups characterized by heightened impulsivity (i.e., individuals with ADHD) has not been tested...

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..CONCLUSION: The findings of the present experiment suggest that the reinforcing effects of methylphenidate, like D-amphetamine and cocaine, are influenced by behavioral demands following drug administration...

..The results indicate that, when diffuse distractors are used, older adults are more susceptible to saccade disruption than are young adults...

..The present study tested this hypothesis...

..These findings are consistent with epidemiological data and previous findings from laboratory studies that suggest methylphenidate has at least some abuse potential...

..Greater consideration of how alcohol-related expectancies shape behaviors under the drug should lead to a better understanding of individual differences with respect to risk for alcohol abuse...

..Results suggest that alcohol-induced increases in stimulus control over behavior might be most likely in situations when stimulus control over behavior has already been established...

..CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that social drinkers might be unable to appreciate an increase in behavioral impairment when alcohol is consumed in the context of another impairing influence...

..The reduced duration of IOR under alcohol suggests that repeated searches in previously explored locations might be more likely under the drug, thereby reducing search efficiency...

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..This study examined dose-response effects of oral cocaine on the inhibitory control of behavior in adult cocaine users using two different behavioral models of inhibitory control...

..By contrast, alcohol impaired inhibition and execution in a dose-dependent manner when cues incorrectly signaled actions. These findings are consistent with a resource limitation account of alcohol impairment...

..The aim of this study was to further assess the behavioral effects of a benzodiazepine in light and moderate drinkers...

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..Future studies should determine whether light and moderate drinkers respond differentially to other commonly abused drugs (e.g., opioids) and whether behavioral responses to ethanol also predict responses to these compounds...

..The results highlight the importance of understanding interactions between driver skill level and the effects of alcohol and possibly other drugs...

..Positive urgency's role was above and beyond previously identified risk factors; these findings, combined with prior cross-sectional and longitudinal field studies, provide support for the role of positive urgency in rash action...

..By increasing the delay in returning attention to a previously attended location, d-amphetamine might reduce time spent searching previously attended locations, increasing the efficiency of visual searches...

..The results suggest that older adults are less capable of inhibiting a prepotent saccadic response, but that other aspects of visual working memory related to the task are preserved...

..The sluggish and inhibited performance of the ADHD/I group challenges the idea that it is a subtype of ADHD...

..The findings also highlight the importance of considering frequency of consumption in determining risky drinking versus relying solely on quantity measures. ..

..The review concludes by identifying important drug-related phenomenon (e.g., drug tolerance, cue reactivity) that might also be studied in behavioral control frameworks in future research...

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..The current study provides a useful model to investigate how drug effects on behavior might be altered in contexts that involve redundant response signals...

..The current study examined alcohol impairment of both behavioral and attentional inhibition, as well as potential associations between the two mechanisms of inhibitory control...

..To date, research has focused on the ascending limb of the blood alcohol curve, and there is little understanding of how acute tolerance to impairment of these mechanisms might influence driving behavior on the descending limb...

..Future clinical and experimental research should attempt to carefully define and measure particular aspects of impaired control and to seek insights from other disciplines...

..Kenneth Leonard provided concluding remarks on the meaning of placebo effects and the value of placebo conditions in research...

..By contrast, volunteers trained in a normal environment showed impairment under alcohol. The findings suggest that differences in driving training history can affect a driver's sensitivity to the impairing effects of alcohol...