Behavioural Brain Research 282 (2015) 84–94 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Behavioural Brain Research jou rn al hom epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bbr Research report Reduced processing of alcohol cues predicts abstinence in recently detoxified alcoholic patients in a three-month follow up period: An ERP study Géraldine Petit a,∗ , Agnieszka Cimochowska a , Carlos Cevallos b , Guy Cheron b , Charles Kornreich a , Catherine Hanak a , Elisa Schroder a , Paul Verbanck a , Salvatore Campanella a,∗∗ a Laboratory of Psychological Medicine and Addictology, ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium b Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics, ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium h i g h l i g h t s • Early alcohol abstainers show different electrophysiological features compared to relapsers. • Abstainers show decreased P3 amplitude for alcohol compared to non-alcohol related pictures. • The decreased P3 could express a reduction of the motivational significance of alcohol pictures. • The difference in amplitude between alcohol and non-alcohol cues is the best predictor of relapse. • Reaction times do not allow differentiating between abstainers and relapsers. a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 September 2014 Received in revised form 29 December 2014 Accepted 31 December 2014 Available online 8 January 2015 Keywords: Alcohol dependence Relapse Attentional bias ERPs P3 sLORETA a b s t r a c t One of the major challenges in alcohol dependence is relapse prevention, as rates of relapse following detoxification are high. Drug-related motivational processes may represent key mechanisms in alcoholic relapse. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a visual oddball task administered to 29 controls (11 females) and 39 patients (9 females). Deviant stimuli were related or unrelated to alcohol. For patients, the task was administered following a 3-week detoxification course. Of these, 19 relapsed during the three months follow-up period. The P3, an ERP component associ- ated with activation of arousal systems in the brain and motivational engagement, was examined with the aim to link the fluctuation of its amplitude in response to alcohol versus non-alcohol cues to the observed relapse rate. Results showed that compared to relapsers, abstainers presented with a decreased P3 amplitude for alcohol related compared to non-alcohol related pictures (p = .009). Microstate analysis and sLORETA topography showed that activation for both types of deviant cues in abstainers originated from the inferior and medial temporal gyrus and the uncus, regions implicated in detection of target stimuli in oddball tasks and of biologically relevant stimuli. Through hierarchical regression, it was found that the P3 amplitude difference between alcohol and non-alcohol related cues was the best predictor of relapse vulnerability (p = .013). Therefore, it seems that a devaluation of the motivational significance of stimuli related to alcohol, measurable through electrophysiology, could protect from a relapse within three months following detoxification in alcohol-dependent patients. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author at: CHU Brugmann, Laboratory of Psychological Medicine and Addictology, 4 Place Vangehuchten, 1020 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 24772851. ∗∗ Corresponding author at: The Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), CHU Brugmann, Department of Psychiatry, 4 Place Vangehuchten, 1020 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 24773465. E-mail addresses: geraldine.petit@chu-brugmann.be (G. Petit), salvatore.campanella@chu-brugmann.be (S. Campanella). 1. Introduction Although the first step in the treatment of alcohol dependence (detoxification) is straightforward, a major challenge is the pre- vention of relapse. Typically, around 50% of patients drop out of treatment and resume alcohol use within three months of the end of detoxification [1]. From a clinical point of view, it is essential to identify factors influencing treatment outcome and relapse that http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.12.057 0166-4328/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.