An event-related potential study of spatial working memory in binge drinking college students

This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) and a modified spatial 2-back task to investigate spatial working memory in binge drinking (BD) college students. Based on the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT-K) and Alcohol Use Questionnaire (AUQ) scores, participants were assigned into BD (n = 25) and non-BD (n = 25) groups. The modified spatial 2-back task includes congruent, incongruent, and lure conditions and participants are required to respond as rapidly and accurately as possible to the congruent stimuli but not to the incongruent and lure stimuli. The BD and non-BD groups exhibited comparable performances on the spatial 2-back task but the BD group showed significantly larger P3 amplitudes than the non-BD group. Additionally, the non-BD group showed larger P3 amplitudes in response to the congruent stimuli compared to the incongruent and lure stimuli whereas the P3 amplitudes in the BD group did not differ significantly among the three conditions. These results indicate that the BD individuals exerted greater effort to maintain performance levels comparable to non-BD individuals and that they were less efficient in differentiating or allocating attentional resources between relevant and irrelevant information.本研究采用事件相关电位（event-related potentials, ERPs）与改良版空间2-back任务 (spatial 2-back task)，探究暴饮 (binge drinking, BD) 大学生的空间工作记忆加工机制。研究人员根据韩国版酒精使用障碍识别测试 (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, AUDIT-K) 与酒精使用问卷 (Alcohol Use Questionnaire, AUQ) 的得分，将被试划分为暴饮组（BD组，n=25）与非暴饮组（non-BD组，n=25）。改良版空间2-back任务包含一致性、不一致性与诱饵三种实验条件，要求被试对一致性刺激以尽可能快的速度与最高的准确性做出反应，而对不一致性与诱饵刺激不予反应。两组被试在空间2-back任务中的作业表现无显著差异，但暴饮组的P3波幅显著高于非暴饮组。此外，非暴饮组对一致性刺激的P3波幅显著高于不一致性与诱饵刺激，而暴饮组的P3波幅在三种实验条件间无显著差异。上述结果表明，暴饮个体为维持与非暴饮个体相当的作业表现付出了更多认知努力，且在区分或分配相关与无关信息的注意资源时效率更低。