Assessing Habitual, Goal-Directed, and Pavlovian Influences in Alcohol Use Disorder

"The paradigm consists of four parts:~In the first part, an instrumental learning task is completed in which subjects must learn which stimuli require a response and which do not. In the second part, a classical (Pavlovian) conditioning task is then completed in which subjects learn by passive viewing which stimuli are associated with certain amounts of money. The third part measures to which instrumental responses (learned in Part 1) are modulated by the presentation of the classically conditioned stimuli (learned in Part 2). At the same time drug-associated stimuli are presented in the background measuring to which extent they conflict with the learned instrumental behavior. In the last part, query trials are implemented in which the participants have to choose between two pictures to assess the relative cue value."

Participants need to press four keys according to the cue location; two keys are associated with high reward, while the other two are associated with low reward in case of correct and timely responses. The explicit goal is to maximize the reward. While in half of the trials the cues are presented in a random order, in the other half of the trials, participants repeatedly perform a fixed action sequence of 12 elements (habit condition). The degree of action sequence chunking (i.e. automation) is assessed via the differences in error rates and reaction times between the random and fixed order condition (habit parameter). Importantly, 15% of all trials are dual- target trials. In these the goal-directed system (press high reward key) and the action sequence (press sequence key) can either be in line (congruent trials) or in conflict (incongruent trials) with each other, thus the interference between goal-directed and habitual control can be tested.

"* Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID) Current Depression:~ * SCID Mania~ * SCID alcohol use disorder (AUD)~ * SCID tobacco use disorder (TUD)~* Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST)~* Alcohol quantity-frequency~* Tobacco quantity-frequency~* Cannabis and other substances quantity-frequency"

"* Sociodemographics~* Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI)~* Fagerström Test for Nicotine depend (FTND)~* Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - Kurzversion (BIS-15)~* Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)~* Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test (CUDIT)~* Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS)"

"* Digit-Symbol-Test (DST)~* Go/Nogo Simon task~* Counting Stroop Task~* Value-based decision-making task (VBDM)"