The think/no-think alcohol task: a new paradigm for assessing memory suppression in alcohol-related contexts

Abstract

Background Research with the Think/No-Think (TNT) task has shown that voluntary suppression of an unwanted memory may lead to its later forgetting. To date, however, no study has assessed the memory suppression abilities in alcohol-related contexts despite the potential implications that it might have for alcohol research. With this aim, we developed a new version of the TNT paradigm, the TNT Alcohol (TNTA) task, which consists of 36 neutral pictures paired with 36 alcohol/no-alcohol images that are instructed to be suppressed or recollected. Methods Electroencephalographic activity was recorded from 64 electrodes while 20 young healthy females performed the TNTA task. The event-related potentials (ERPs) typically involved in memory suppression/recollection were analyzed, namely the fronto-central N2, the late parietal positivity (LPP), and the frontal slow wave (FSW). Results Findings revealed reduced recall for previously learned images that were subsequently instructed to be suppressed (No-Think) relative to those instructed to be retrieved (Think) and those not cued to be suppressed or retrieved (Baseline). This reduction seemed to be more prominent for alcohol-related memories. In addition, ERP analysis showed that compared to attempts of recollection, attempts of memory suppression were associated with attenuated LPP amplitude-more pronounced for alcohol-related memories-(indicating reduced conscious recollection for No-Think images) as well as with increased FSW (suggesting strategic control aiming at decrease accessibility of unwanted memories). Conclusions These results replicate and extend previously reported behavioral and ERP findings in the TNT paradigm and suggest that the TNTA task may be a useful instrument to measure the ability to suppress alcohol-related memories.