Rationale The cognitive deficits observed in young binge
drinkers have been largely documented during the last decade.
Yet, these earlier studies have mainly focused on high-level
cognitive abilities (particularly memory and executive functions), and uncertainty thus still abounds regarding the integrity of less complex cognitive processes in binge drinking.
This is particularly true for attentional abilities, which play a
crucial role in behavior regulation and are impaired in other
alcohol-related disorders.
Objectives and methods To specify the attentional deficits associated with binge drinking, two groups of university students (40 binge drinkers and 40 matched controls) performed
the Attention Network Task, a theoretically grounded test
assessing three independent attentional networks: alerting,
orienting, and executive control.
Results Binge drinkers displayed preserved orienting performance but impaired alerting and executive control. Binge
drinking is thus not related to a general attentional impairment
but rather to specific impairments of the alerting and executive
control networks.
Conclusions These results underline that, beyond the already
explored high-level deficits, binge drinking is also related to
impairments for attentional abilities. In view of the role played
by attentional impairments in alcohol dependence, the present
data also suggest that rehabilitation programs should be
developed to improve attentional abilities at the early stages
of alcohol-related disorders