Given that disinhibition is sensitive to acute alcohol consumption, it has been hypothesized that fluctuations in disinhibition may mediate the alcohol priming effect, i.e., the “loss of control” over drinking that occurs following alcohol ingestion (42). This prediction was based on findings reported by Weafer and Fillmore (45), who demonstrated that consumption of 0.65 g/kg of alcohol led to increased commission errors on a Go/No-Go task. Importantly, those authors found that the magnitude of alcohol-induced disinhibition was positively correlated with ad libitum alcohol consumption in a subsequent testing session (when participants were sober), with alcohol-induced disinhibition accounting for 20% of the variance in alcohol consumption.
