{"doi":"10.1111/add.70247","title":"Alcohol approach–avoidance task behavior and brain potentials differentially predict ecologically assessed alcohol craving and consumption in early emerging adulthood","abstract":"AIMS: The current study measured the extent to which different neurobehavioral indices of incentive-motivational salience attribution to alcohol cues predict alcohol craving and consumption in the natural environment. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Laboratory study at a university in Missouri, USA, followed by a smartphone-based 21-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol. Participants were emerging adults (N = 218-268 [52-56% female], age 18-20). MEASUREMENTS: Participants completed an alcohol cue approach-avoidance task while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Behavioral measures (response time) indexed the strength of cue-activated approach vs. avoidance tendency. Cue-locked event-related potentials provided EEG-based neural measures of motivated attention (P3 amplitude) and approach-avoidance conflict (N450 amplitude). From EMA, measures of alcohol consumption dynamics (as indexed by estimated blood alcohol concentration [eBAC], g/dL) during real-world drinking episodes were obtained, as were measures of alcohol craving (7-point visual analogue scale) dynamics during and outside these episodes. FINDINGS: Different approach-avoidance task-derived behavioral and neural measures rank-ordered participants differently. Participants who approached alcohol cues more rapidly in lab subsequently showed steeper increases in craving (∆B ± standard error [SE] = 1.042 ± 0.499 point/hr), and eBAC (∆B ± SE = 0.046 ± 0.017 g/dl/hr), during real-world drinking episodes. Participants who avoided alcohol cues more slowly in lab also showed steeper increases in eBAC (∆B ± SE = 0.056 ± 0.017 g/dl/hr). Participants with larger P3 during alcohol cue approach in lab subsequently showed steeper increases in eBAC (∆B ± SE = 0.048 ± 0.017 g/dl/hr), as did those with smaller P3 during alcohol cue avoidance (∆B ± SE = 0.025 ± 0.017 g/dl/hr). Participants with smaller N450 during alcohol cue approach in lab subsequently showed steeper increases in craving during drinking episodes (∆B ± SE = 1.465 ± 0.607 point/hr). Tests examining lab-based neurobehavioral measures as predictors of craving dynamics during nondrinking moments, such as following incidental cue exposure, generally were inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS: Incentive salience toward alcohol may influence alcohol seeking (including craving) and alcohol consumption through distinct behavioral risk pathways in different people.","journal":"Addiction","year":2025,"id":537313,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9338,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1423097,"name":"Sandie Keerstock","orcid":"0000-0001-5121-594X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":707576,"name":"Casey B. Kohen","orcid":"0000-0002-6052-8232","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":672322,"name":"Thomas M. Piasecki","orcid":"0000-0002-2793-2049","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":707578,"name":"Bruce D. Bartholow","orcid":"0000-0002-9234-6417","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":480738,"name":"Roberto U. Cofresí","orcid":"0000-0003-1131-6142","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":76,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:52:12.997494Z","pmid":"41292122","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}