Alcohol is widely believed to increase impulsive behavior. However, this has been difficult to demonstrate for impulsive choice using existing measures of delay discounting. We hypothesized a new real-time discounting task would be more sensitive to acute effects of alcohol. Measures included were a (a) question-based measure of delay discounting, the (b) Experiential Discounting Task (EDT), the (c) Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), the (d) Stop Task, and the (e) Go/No-Go Task. A three-session, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design was used. Placebo, 0.4, or 0.8 g/kg alcohol doses were administered in a counterbalanced order over the three testing sessions. Twenty four (13 females) healthy social drinkers between the ages of 21 and 35 participated. Alcohol increased impulsive responding only on the EDT and the Stop Task. On the EDT, participants performed more impulsively after the 0.8 g/kg dose compared to placebo, whereas on the Stop Task, both the 0.4 and 0.8 g/kg doses increased impulsive responding. Alcohol had no significant effects on the other measures. The EDT was more sensitive to the acute effects of alcohol than previously used discounting tasks. Procedural differences between the EDT and question-based measures are discussed in the context of these divergent findings.
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机译：人们普遍认为，酒精会增加冲动行为。但是，使用现有的延迟贴现措施很难对冲动选择进行证明。我们假设一项新的实时贴现任务将对酒精的急性影响更为敏感。包括的措施包括（a）基于问题的延迟折扣措施，（b）经验折扣任务（EDT），（c）气球类比风险任务（BART），（d）停止任务和（e）执行/不执行任务。使用三阶段，双盲，安慰剂控制的受试者内部设计。在三个测试阶段中，以平衡的顺序服用安慰剂，0.4或0.8 g / kg酒精。二十四名（13名女性）21至35岁的健康社交饮酒者参加了比赛。酒精只会增加对EDT和Stop Task的冲动反应。在EDT上，与安慰剂相比，参与者在0.8 g / kg剂量后的冲动表现更为明显，而在“停止任务”上，0.4和0.8 g / kg的剂量均可增加冲动反应。酒精对其他措施没有明显影响。与以前使用的贴现任务相比，EDT对酒精的急性影响更为敏感。在这些分歧的发现中，讨论了EDT和基于问题的措施之间的程序差异。
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