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Karakashevska, Elena, Derpsch, Yiovanna 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4380-5058, Jones, Andrew and Makin, Alexis D. J.
(2024)
The extrastriate symmetry response is robust to alcohol intoxication.
Psychophysiology, 61 (9).
ISSN 0048-5772
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Abstract
Visual symmetry activates a network of regions in the extrastriate cortex and generates an event-related potential (ERP) called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN). Previous work has found that the SPN is robust to experimental manipulations of task, spatial attention, and memory load. In the current study, we investigated whether the SPN is also robust to alcohol-induced changes in mental state. A pilot experiment (N = 13) found that alcohol unexpectedly increased SPN amplitude. We followed this unexpected result with two new experiments on separate groups, using an alcohol challenge paradigm. One group completed an Oddball discrimination task (N = 26). Another group completed a Regularity discrimination task (N = 26). In both groups, participants consumed a medium dose of alcohol (0.65 g/kg body weight) and a placebo drink, in separate sessions. Alcohol reduced SPN amplitude in the Oddball task (contrary to the pilot results) but had no effect on SPN amplitude in the Regularity task. In contrast, the N1 wave was consistently dampened by alcohol in all experiments. Exploratory analysis indicated that the inconsistent effect of alcohol on SPN amplitude may be partly explained by individual differences in alcohol use. Alcohol reduced the SPN in light drinkers and increased it in heavier drinkers. Despite remaining questions, the results highlight the automaticity of symmetry processing. Symmetry still produces a large SPN response, even when participants are intoxicated, and even when symmetry is not task relevant.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data Availability Statement: All EEG data sets, materials, and analysis codes from SPN research at the University of Liverpool are housed in the Complete Liverpool SPN catalog on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/2sncj/). As described in Makin et al. (2022), the SPN catalog has folders for each SPN project. The pilot study is Project 26, and the current study is Project 43. Other researchers could assess computational12 of 13 |1 o 1 f3INf1 TRODUCG reproducibility by running an alternative analysis. They could also use raw data for a new analysis (e.g., changes in pre-stimulus alpha power when intoxicated). Materials to validate the statistical tests reported in the results section (such as SPSS files and R codes) are in subfolder called “Results and analysis” in Karakashevska et al. Supplementary materials are also in this folder. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | alcoholism,eeg,spn,symmetry,visual processes,physiology,neuropsychology and physiological psychology,experimental and cognitive psychology,physiology (medical),sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300/1314 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Aug 2026 12:49 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Aug 2026 05:42 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104143 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/psyp.14593 |
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