Enhanced conditioned “liking” of novel visual cues paired with alcohol or non-alcohol beverage container images among individuals at higher risk for alcohol use disorder

RATIONALE/OBJECTIVE: This study used an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure to assess the affective properties of a CS for ingested drug reward in humans. Specifically, the study tested whether the evaluative response (“liking”/”disliking”) to an arbitrary visual stimulus (“CS(2),” e.g., a purple hexagon) could be changed through pairings with an alcohol or non-alcohol beverage cue (“CS(1),” e.g., a full wine glass, a juice box), which is ostensibly a conditioned visual predictive stimulus for alcohol or non-alcohol liquid reward, respectively. METHODS: Participants (N = 369, 18–23 years, 66% female, 79% white, 21% reporting no alcohol use ever or in the past year) received 24 CS(1) pairings with each CS(2). CS(2) and CS(1) evaluations were assessed pre- and post-conditioning. RESULTS: Alcohol and non-alcohol CS(2) “liking” correlated with alcohol use. “Liking” of the alcohol but not non-alcohol CS(1) also correlated with alcohol use. Alcohol CS(1) “liking” also correlated with alcohol and non-alcohol CS(2) ‘liking,” whereas non-alcohol CS(1) ‘liking” correlated with non-alcohol but not alcohol CS(2) “liking.” CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, findings support the idea that drug-related visual stimuli acquire appetitive (hedonic and/or incentive) properties as a function of individual differences in drug use, which entail individual differences in exposure to the conditioning effects of addictive substances like alcohol. Findings also suggest a link between drug use and the propensity to attribute affective/motivational significance to reward-predictive cues in general. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-022-06231-4.