In the laboratory, the go/no-go task and stop signal task (SST) are widely used to investigate cognitive control in alcohol and substance abusers. In these behavioral tasks, the frequent “go” trials set up a prepotent response tendency that needs to be overridden occasionally when the nogo or stop signal appears. By comparing cerebral responses to the nogo or stop trials, when inhibition is required, and responses to go trials, investigators have characterized how these processes are altered in problem drinkers and those with a family history of alcohol misuse (Acheson et al., 2014; Bednarski et al., 2012; Heitzeg et al., 2010; Hu et al., 2015; Li et al., 2009b; Yan and Li, 2009). Here, we employed fMRI and the SST to examine how drinking problems, as assessed with the AUDIT, and years of alcohol use influence response inhibition and cerebral activities to response inhibition. Because years of alcohol use is highly correlated with age, we recruited a group of demographics matched non-drinkers for comparison in order to address the specific effects of duration of alcohol use.
