Testing the nature of the alcohol-related attentional bias in binge drinking and severe alcohol use disorder : an eye-tracking approach

Excessive and repeated alcohol use leads to deleterious effects on the brain, notably by causing the over-sensitization of the reward system. This overactivation would generate the apparition of an attentional bias, defined as the preferential allocation of attentional resources towards alcohol-related stimuli. This attentional bias would play a key role in the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorders. Various theoretical assumptions have been formulated and commonly accepted by researchers concerning the nature of this bias. The aim of this thesis was to test their experimental validation in a population of binge drinking students and patients with severe alcohol use disorder by investigating the nature of the attentional bias using an eye-tracking technique. Our results severely challenge most theoretical assumptions about alcohol-related attentional bias, notably by demonstrating that the bias is more affected by motivational states than by severity of alcohol use, and is characterized by the avoidance of alcohol-related stimuli in most detoxified patients with severe alcohol use disorder.