The effects of non-alcoholic beer on response inhibition: An open-label study

Three experiments were conducted to test the following hypothesis: the taste, smell, and sight of non-alcoholic beer (alcohol cue) will induce a conditioned response even when participants know that the beer is non-alcoholic. In Experiments 1A and 1B, the participants who drank beer at least once a month were divided into a non-alcoholic beer group and a water group. After being told that their beverage was alcohol-free, participants in the experiment group drank non-alcoholic beer, while those in the control group drank water. Subsequently, all participants completed a Go/No-Go task. In Experiment 1A, the change from baseline in false alarms did not significantly differ between the groups; however, in Experiment 1B, the change from baseline in false alarms was greater in the non-alcoholic beer group than in the water group. That is, an alcohol-like effect only occurred in Experiment 1B. A correlation analysis combining the results of Experiments 1A and 1B revealed a significant positive correlation between the change from baseline in false alarms and age (an estimate of beer intake experience) in the non-alcoholic beer group only. Then, to examine the effect of age on the results more precisely, an older sample (mean age, 50 years) was recruited for Experiment 2. Among the older participants, the change from baseline in false alarms was greater in the non-alcoholic beer group than in the water group. Taken together, the results suggest that non-alcoholic beer impairs inhibitory responses (i.e., produces a conditioned response) in older drinkers because these drinkers more strongly associate the alcohol conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus than do younger participants.