The current study was designed to clarify the nature of alcohol’s effects on cognitive control by investigating the extent to which typical performance fluctuations influence conflict monitoring and performance adjustment under sober and intoxicated conditions. Findings from this study have the potential to inform models of alcohol effects on numerous problem behaviors known to be regulated by cognitive control (e.g., aggression, excessive/additional alcohol intake). The study addressed the following questions: 1) Does alcohol affect conflict monitoring and performance adjustment differently as a function of whether or not control failures occur? 2) If alcohol impairs these processes specifically following control failures, how soon does control recover? 3) Are neural signals of conflict monitoring and performance adjustment associated with behavioral manifestations of control, and if so, do these associations differ under intoxicated and sober conditions? Participants performed the arrow flanker task after consuming alcohol, a placebo, or a non-alcoholic control beverage. Behavioral (i.e., RT, accuracy, and posterror CE in RT) and ERP (i.e., ERN, N2, and FSW) indices of performance and cognitive control were examined on trials following correct and incorrect responses.
