Binge drinking is a widespread alcohol-consumption pattern in youth and is linked to cognitive consequences, mostly for executive functions. However, other crucial factors remain
less explored in binge drinking and notably the emotional-automatic processes. Dualprocess model postulates that addictive disorders are not only due to impaired reflective
system (involved in deliberate behaviors), but rather to an imbalance between underactivated reflective system and over-activated affective-automatic one (involved in impulsive
behaviors). This proposal has been confirmed in alcohol-dependence, but has not been
tested in binge drinking.The observation of comparable impairments in binge drinking and
alcohol-dependence led to the “continuum hypothesis,” suggesting similar deficits across
different alcohol-related disorders. In this perspective, applying the dual-process model to
binge drinking might renew the understanding of this continuum hypothesis. A three-axes
research agenda will be proposed, exploring: (1) the affective-automatic system in binge
drinking; (2) the systems’ interactions and imbalance in binge drinking; (3) the evolution of
this imbalance in the transition between binge drinking and alcohol-dependence