The Enhancing Effect Of Social Reward Motivation On Inhibitory Control In Smokers

Inhibitory control plays an important role in the occurrence and development of smoking and smoking cessation behavior.Social reward motivation has an important impact on the function of individual inhibitory control.Researchers have found that providing social rewards can induce social reward motivation and enhance inhibitory control performance in non-addicts.However,for smokers,long-term smoking behavior has changed their brain reward processing system.This change shows an overestimation of the reward value of cigarettes,which may be accompanied by a relative underestimation of other types of reward value.Thus,it is unknown whether social reward motivation can enhance inhibitory control in smokers.In addition,influenced by the abnormal reward processing system of smokers,when smokers are exposed to smoking-related cues,their attention will be attracted by smoking-related cues.Therefore,there may be differences in the effects of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control under different types of cues.Finally,the effect of social reward motivation on inhibitory control depends on the regulation of cognitive resources.The weakening of smokers’ inhibitory control by smoking-related cues is largely caused by the consumption of cognitive resources.Therefore,the effect of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control under smoking-related cues may be affected by cognitive load condition.Based on the above content,this study designed two sub-studies and combined with ERP technology to explore the difference of the impact of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control under different types of cues,and the role of social reward motivation in the cognitive load of smokers’ inhibitory control process.In study 1,the Go/Nogo task of social reward and the Go/Nogo task of smokingrelated cues were used to investigate and compare the effects of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control under neutral cues and smoking-related cues.In study 1,30 male smokers participated in a within-subject design of 2(neutral feedback,social reward feedback)× 2(neutral cue,smoking-related cue),and the dependent variables were Nogo trial error rate and Go trial reaction time.The results showed that:(1)Compared with neutral cues,smokers had higher Nogo trial error rate and shorter Go trial reaction time under smoking-related cues;(2)Compared with neutral feedback,smokers had lower Nogo trial error rate under social reward feedback;(3)Under the condition of social reward feedback,the Nogo trial error rate of smokers with neutral cues was significantly lower than that with smoking-related cues;under the condition of neutral feedback,the Nogo trial error rate of smokers with neutral cues was not significantly different from that with smoking-related cues.Study 2 added cognitive load manipulation to the Go/Nogo task used in Study 1,and combined with ERP to investigate the effects of social reward motivation on inhibitory control under smoking-related cues in high and low cognitive load conditions.The within-subject experiment design was 2(neutral feedback,social reward feedback)× 2(low cognitive load,high cognitive load).The dependent variables were the error rate of Nogo trials and the reaction time of Go trials,and the ERP indicators were the amplitude and latency of N2 and P3 of correct Nogo trials.The behavioral results showed that:(1)Compared with low cognitive load,smokers had higher Nogo trial error rate and longer Go-trial reaction time under high cognitive load;(2)Compared with neutral feedback,smokers had lower Nogo trial error rate under social reward feedback;(3)Under the condition of low cognitive load,the Nogo trial error rate of smokers under the condition of social reward feedback was significantly lower than that under the condition of neutral feedback,while under the conditions of high cognitive load,there was no significant difference between the Nogo trial error rate of smokers under the conditions of social reward feedback and neutral feedback.The main ERP results showed that:(1)the average amplitudes of N2 and P3 were smaller in smokers with high cognitive load than those with low cognitive load;(2)the average amplitudes of N2 and P3 were larger in smokers with social reward feedback than those with neutral feedback;(3)the interaction between feedback valence and cognitive load was significant for the average amplitude of P3.In the low cognitive load condition,the amplitude of P3 in the social reward condition was significantly greater than that in the neutral feedback condition;in the high cognitive load condition,there was no significant difference in the amplitude of P3 between the social reward condition and the neutral feedback condition.The conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)social reward motivation can help smokers improve their inhibitory control performance,while exposure to smoking-related cues will weaken the effect of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control;(2)higher cognitive load will weaken the effect of social reward motivation on smokers’ inhibitory control under smoking-related cues.