Episodic future thinking (EFT) is based on the new science of prospection, which was first identified in a Science publication in 2007 and refers to pre-experiencing the future by simulation. Considerable evidence suggests that prospection is important for understanding human cognition, affect, motivation, and action. Individuals with damaged frontal areas, as well as individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), show deficits in planning prospectively. One systematic method to engender prospection is via EFT. EFT, as applied in our prior studies and in this proposal consists of having participants develop positive plausible future events that correspond to several future time frames (e.g., 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months etc). For each of these timeframes participants are asked to concretize the events (e.g., What are you doing? Who will be there? What will you see, hear, smell, and feel?). We and others have used EFT to decrease delay discounting (DD) in individuals with AUD and smokers, as well as normal weight, overweight, and obese populations when compared to the control condition, control episodic thinking (CET). Consistent with reinforcer pathology, EFT also reduces alcohol valuation in the purchase task among individuals with AUD. However, no study to date has examined whether EFT reduces alcohol self-administration in the laboratory. Moreover, the neural correlates of EFT in AUD are also unknown. In these studies, we propose to test an intervention, EFT, which we hypothesize will decrease reinforcer pathology measures in a bar-like setting in the laboratory; that is, EFT will decrease delay discounting, as well as alcohol self-administration, demand, and craving compared to a control episodic thinking (CET) condition. Moreover, we hypothesize EFT will enhance activation in brain regions associated with prospection (e.g., hippocampus and amygdala) and the executive decision system (e.g., DLPFC). We will also examine the effect of EFT on real-world drinking.
Age range
21 Years – 65 Years
Sex
ALL
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Delay Discounting (DD) Rates (Studies 1 and 2)
Timeframe: Pre-intervention (S1; baseline measures; Day 1), Post 1st cue generation: S2 (occurs up to 7 days post S1 in Study 1 and 2-3 weeks post S1 in Study 2), and Post 2nd cue generation: S3 (occurs up to 7 days post S2 in Study 1 and 2 weeks post S2 in Study 2)
Intensity of Alcohol Demand (Study 2)
Timeframe: Pre-intervention (S1; baseline measure; Day 1), Post 1st cue generation, (S2; approximately 2 weeks post S1), and Post 2nd cue generation (S3; approximately 2 weeks post S2 and 4 weeks post S1)
In-Laboratory Alcohol Consumption (Study 1)
Timeframe: Self-Administration session will occur at either Session 2 or Session 3 based on counterbalance assignment. S2 occurs up to 7 days post S1 and S3 occurs up to 7 days post S2.
fMRI Hyper-connectivity Decrease During Delay Discounting (Study 1)
Timeframe: fMRI session occurred at either Session 2 or Session 3 based on counterbalance assignment. S2 occurred up to 7 days post S1 and S3 occurred up to 7 days post S2.
fMRI Hyper-connectivity Decrease During Alcohol Purchase Task (Study 1)
Timeframe: fMRI session occurred at either Session 2 or Session 3 based on counterbalance assignment. S2 occurred up to 7 days post S1 and S3 occurred up to 7 days post S2.
Change in Alcoholic Drinks Per Day (Study 2)
Timeframe: Daily during Pre-intervention (week 1); Post 1st cue generation (weeks 2-3); and Post 2nd cue generation (weeks 4-5).