Modulation of the cognitive-behavioral effects of alcohol intoxication by age and sex

• Applicant: Dr. Ann-Kathrin Stock
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 568605454

The effects of high-dose alcohol consumption, including binge drinking, are dramatically under-researched in elderly samples and women, both of which likely represent vulnerable groups in terms of negative immediate and long-term outcomes. Closing this gap in knowledge is of key importance for developing individualized/targeted prevention and intervention measures in the future, as well as increasing public health awareness about inter-individual differences in the risks of alcohol consumption. This holds especially true in the context of an ageing society and against the fact that women are “catching up” with men’s higher alcohol consumption habits. The proposed study will focus on alcohol-induced deficits in response inhibition, as this cognitive faculty is highly functionally relevant, and alcohol effects on response inhibition are known to differ between the sexes and tend to worsen with age. Aside from behavioral measures, this should be reflected in the corresponding neurophysiological measures. The project’s main research hypotheses are as follows: The detrimental effects of alcohol onto executive functions (especially response inhibition and conflict monitoring) • Are strongly mediated by the effects of GABA and dopamine in fronto-striatal structures, which shift the E/I ratio towards inhibition and modulate gain control functions / the signal-to-noise ratio. • Are likely reflected by 1/f aperiodic noise and mid-frontal ERPs as well as theta oscillations originating in prefrontal brain areas. • Should continuously worsen with age due to (prefrontal) neuronal degeneration and decreases in dopaminergic signaling. • Should show sex differences due to allopregnanolone- and testosterone-induced changes in GABAergic signaling, where higher levels of those hormones should be correlated with an aggravation of intoxication-induced inhibition deficits. Against this background, the objective of the proposed study is to investigate how age (as a continuous variable across the vocational lifespan) and biological sex (as a categorial variable, as well as associated levels of gonadal hormones as continuous variables) modulate the effects of an experimentally induced, binge drinking-like alcohol intoxication onto cognitive-behavioural (response inhibition and conflict control) performance and associated neurophysiological correlates (Nogo-N2, Nogo-P3, θ band activity and the slope of the aperiodic 1/f function). Extending the current knowledge on these factors provides an important step towards being able to better identify, predict and potentially target the mechanisms leading to binge-drinking-related impairments on an individualized level across the adult life span.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants