The impact of alcohol on brain response in social context: A hyperscanning alcohol-administration trial

IF 4.5 2区医学 Q1 NEUROIMAGING

NeuroImage Pub Date : 2025-09-10 DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121450

Dahyeon Kang , Catharine E. Fairbairn , Jiaxu Han , Kara D. Federmeier

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Abstract

Evidence for the integration of alcohol into social life dates to the beginning of recorded history. Humans’ tendency to combine social interaction with alcohol has been attributed to alcohol’s ability to shift social perception, with behavioral research suggesting alcohol fosters social connection and diminishes perceived social threat. Yet the acute effects of alcohol on brain responses in social context are as yet unexplored. Combining experimental alcohol-administration with an EEG hyperscanning paradigm, the current study examines the effect of alcohol on evaluation of self- and other-linked performance. Social drinkers (N = 128) were administered either an alcoholic (target BAC 0.08 %) or control beverage in pairs. Dyads engaged in a gambling task while event-related potential Feedback Effects (FEs) to wins and losses were assessed simultaneously in both participants. Findings indicated a significant correlation in FEs among players and observers. Results further revealed alcohol effects that emerged specifically in the social domain, with alcohol intoxication significantly reducing the magnitude of FEs among observers paired with a stranger. In contrast, alcohol’s impact on FEs was non-significant when participants observed a familiar partner, as well as when participants were actively engaged in playing. Taken together, findings provide evidence for core social (e.g., observational) dimensions of human cognition and further offer clues surrounding neural pathways supporting the widespread integration of alcohol into social life.

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社会环境下酒精对大脑反应的影响：一项超扫描酒精管理试验

酒精融入社会生活的证据可以追溯到有记载的历史之初。人类倾向于将社交互动与酒精结合起来，这被归因于酒精改变社会认知的能力，行为研究表明，酒精能促进社会联系，减少感知到的社会威胁。然而，酒精在社会环境中对大脑反应的急性影响尚未得到探索。结合实验酒精给药和脑电图超扫描范式，本研究探讨了酒精对自我和他人相关表现评估的影响。社交饮酒者（N=128）被给予酒精（目标BAC）。08%)或对照饮料。两人参与赌博任务，同时评估事件相关的潜在反馈效应（FEs）对输赢的影响。研究结果表明，玩家和观察者之间的FEs存在显著相关性。结果进一步揭示了酒精对社会领域的影响，酒精中毒显著降低了与陌生人配对的观察者的FEs程度。相比之下，当参与者观察到一个熟悉的伙伴，以及参与者积极参与游戏时，酒精对FEs的影响并不显著。综上所述，这些发现为人类认知的核心社会（例如观察）维度提供了证据，并进一步为支持酒精广泛融入社会生活的神经通路提供了线索。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

NeuroImage 医学-核医学

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

10.50%

发文量

809

审稿时长

63 days

期刊介绍： NeuroImage, a Journal of Brain Function provides a vehicle for communicating important advances in acquiring, analyzing, and modelling neuroimaging data and in applying these techniques to the study of structure-function and brain-behavior relationships. Though the emphasis is on the macroscopic level of human brain organization, meso-and microscopic neuroimaging across all species will be considered if informative for understanding the aforementioned relationships.