Afferent Neurocardiac Signals, Cue Reactivity, and Cognitive Control

Conscious attempts to regulate alcohol use are often undermined by automatic attention and arousal processes activated by alcohol cues, as well as by diminished ability to inhibit in-the-moment behaviors. The current study will examine whether a brief behavioral intervention of slow breathing paced at a resonance frequency of the cardiovascular system can interrupt automatic alcohol cue reactivity and enhance cognitive control in binge drinkers. Results from the proposed study may provide new prevention and intervention targets to interrupt unhealthy drinking behaviors.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Binge Drinking
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Resonance breathing; Behavioral: Low demand cognitive task

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, 08901
      • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 35 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must report at least 2 binge drinking episodes in the past month
• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision

Exclusion Criteria:

• History or presence of serious psychiatric disorders, neurological disorders, or head injury resulting in a loss of consciousness
• Presence of any serious medical condition
• Report of more than a few occasions (3-4) of illicit drug use, except for cannabis, in the preceding year

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Resonance paced breathing; Active resonance breathing task consisting of synchronizing breathing with a visual pacer (E-Z Air, Thought Technology, Ltd., Plattsburgh, NY) that moves up (inhale) and down (exhale) at the rate of 0.1 Hz (6 breaths per min)	Behavioral: Resonance breathing; Participants will synchronize their breathing with a visual pacer (E-Z Air, Thought Technology, Ltd., Plattsburgh, NY) that moves up (inhale) and down (exhale) at the rate of 0.1 Hz (6 breaths per min)
Active Comparator: Low demand vanilla control; A low-demand cognitive "vanilla" task wherein different colored rectangles are presented for 10 sec each, and participants are instructed to silently count the number of blue rectangles	Behavioral: Low demand cognitive task; Different colored rectangles are presented for 10 sec each, and participants are instructed to silently count the number of blue rectangles

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
N2 ERP amplitude (in microvolts) elicited from an Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go task	The N2 component (in microvolts) of the event-related potential occurring 250-350 ms after stimulus presentation at frontal and central electrode sites during an Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
N2pc ERP amplitude (in microvolts) elicited from a visual dot probe detection task	The N2pc component of the event-related potential occurring 200-275 ms after stimulus presentation at parietal and occipital electrode sites (ipsilateral minus contralateral hemisphere activity) during a modified visual dot probe detection task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
P3b ERP amplitude (in microvolts) elicited from a picture-viewing task	The P3b component of the event-related potential occurring 300-600 ms after stimulus presentation at central and parietal electrode sites during a picture viewing task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
N2 ERP latency (in milliseconds) elicited from an Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go task	The latency of the N2 component of the event-related potential from frontal and central electrode sites during a picture viewing task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task. Latency will be determined using 50% area latency from a difference wave between task conditions	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
N2pc ERP latency (in milliseconds) elicited from a visual dot probe detection task	The latency of the N2pc component of the event-related potential from parietal and occipital electrode sites during a visual dot probe detection task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task. Latency will be determined using 50% area latency from a difference wave between task conditions	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
P3b ERP latency (in milliseconds) elicited from a picture-viewing task	The latency of the P3b component of the event-related potential from central and parietal electrode sites during a picture viewing task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task. Latency will be determined using 50% area latency from a difference wave between task conditions	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
Task accuracy from the behavioral response during the Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go task	Task accuracy as a percentage of correct behavioral responses to the task during the Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go ERP task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
Reaction time from the behavioral response during the Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go task	Reaction time for the correct behavioral responses to the task measured in milliseconds during the Alcohol Cued Go/No-Go ERP task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
Task accuracy from the behavioral response during the visual dot probe detection task	Task accuracy as a percentage of correct behavioral responses to the task during the visual dot probe detection task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart
Reaction time from the behavioral response during the visual dot probe detection task	Reaction time for the correct behavioral responses to the task measured in milliseconds during the visual dot probe ERP task following a 5-minute course of resonance breathing compared to a low-demand control task	Immediate; Difference between the active resonance breathing compared to the low demand cognitive task occurring one week apart

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Brandon L Alderman, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Principal Investigator: Marsha E Bates, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 16, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 5, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): May 11, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 20, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 15, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Heart Rate Variability; Attention; Cognition; Cognitive Control; Brief Intervention; Breathing; Arousal; Alcohol Consumption; Heavy Drinking; Cue Reactivity; Cardiovascular System; Electrophysiology; Young Adult; Event-Related Potentials; Baroreflex; Drinking Behavior; Individual Differences; Alcohol Cue
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Pathologic Processes; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Respiration Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Alcohol-Related Disorders; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior; Alcohol Drinking; Respiratory Aspiration; Drinking Behavior; Binge Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro2021001073

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

IPD Plan Description

We plan to share data via the NIAAA Data Archive (NIAAADA) repository within the larger National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA).

Data generated by the proposed project include the following information on participants (male and female) aged 18-35 years:

Surveys:

• Basic Demographics (Age, Sex, Race/Ethnicity, Height/Weight)
• Current Alcohol and Substance Use
• Alcohol Use Questionnaire (AUQ), Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS), and Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire

Electrophysiological Data:

• N2pc, P3b, and N2 components of the human event-related brain potential (ERP)
• Collected during three cognitive tasks of cue reactivity (2) and inhibitory control (1)

• IPD Sharing Time Frame: At the conclusion of data collection and no later than 24 months after the NIH award end date or 6 months post-publication of the final data set (whichever date occurs first). There is no restriction for how long the data will be available.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No