Analyzing the Relationship Between Chronic and Occasional Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Their Association with Attentional Bias: An Eye-tracking Methodology.

BACKGROUND

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is accompanied by cognitive impairments, including attentional bias towards cues linked to alcohol. Most studies on attentional biases have focused on participants in intoxicated states, with limited research on differences between chronic and occasional users. This study aimed to examine attentional biases in chronic alcohol users compared to occasional users using eye-tracking.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, 71 male participants (36 chronic users and 35 occasional users) were recruited from a tertiary care center in India. Eye-tracking assessments were conducted using free-viewing of emotional and landscape images, and viewing of alcohol related stimuli. For each task, variables such as the number of fixations, fixation duration, scan path, and anti-saccade rates were calculated.

RESULTS

No statistically significant difference was found between chronic alcohol users and occasional users in fixation metrics, scan path length, or anti-saccade rates for emotional, landscape, or alcohol related stimuli. Chronic alcohol users had slightly longer fixation durations and greater scan path lengths on alcohol-related stimuli, but these differences were not significant (p > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that chronic alcohol users may not always display prominent attentional biases in a sober state. The prolonged abstinence duration (>2 months) contributed to the absence of significant biases in our study. The slightly longer scan path length for alcohol-related images among chronic users may indicate that they were possibly avoiding these images. The findings also highlight the need for a state-dependent approach and the importance of assessing variables like craving in future research.