Drinking, BingeNCT06885190
Multisensory Processing of Alcohol Cues in Young Adult Binge Drinkers
A study testing Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli in people with Drinking, Binge, run by Rochester Institute of Technology at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Binge drinking is common among young adults and is related to many negative health outcomes including blackouts, risky sex, drunk driving, alcohol use disorder, and liver disease. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 25 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Drinking, Binge
- What is being tested?
- Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 100 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 31 Jul 2026to 15 Aug 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 25 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult
Who may be able to join
- ages 18 to 25 years old
- meet criteria for either the binge drinker or social drinker groups previously described
Who cannot join
- history of head injury involving loss of consciousness of 10+ minutes
- colorblindness
- hearing, tactile, olfactory or uncorrected vision deficits
- history of seizures
- neurological disorder diagnosis
- mental health history of psychosis or mania
Show all 9Show fewer
- history of alcohol or substance use disorder diagnosis
- illicit drug use in the past 30 days
- changes to psychotropic medication type or dose in past 3 months
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York, 14623
Rebecca J Houston, PhD, 585-475-5205, rjhgss@rit.edu
About this study
Binge drinking is common among young adults and is related to many negative health outcomes including blackouts, risky sex, drunk driving, alcohol use disorder, and liver disease. Understanding whether there are differences in how binge drinkers respond to alcohol-related cues and whether this is related to craving is important for improving interventions and treatments. The proposed study will compare behavioral and neural processing of alcohol and non-alcohol cues in a single sensory modality (vision) with that of cues presented in multiple sensory modalities (vision, touch, and smell) with varying degrees of realistic appearance (images, virtual reality, real objects). Participants will answer questionnaires related to their physical and mental health and recent alcohol and drug use. Those eligible for the study will complete two in-person lab sessions. During both sessions they will be asked to view a series of cues which will include images on a computer screen, objects presented in virtual reality, or real objects. Sometimes these will be presented just visually and other times they will be combined with the presentation of specific smells or an object to touch. Some of these cues will be alcohol-related and others will be neutral (non-alcohol-related). Brainwave activity, as measured by the electroencephalogram (EEG), and reports of alcohol craving will be collected during these sessions. It is expected that brainwave activity will be greatest in response to multisensory cues compared to that in response unisensory (visual only) cues. It is also expected that young adults with a recent history of binge drinking will show the greatest brainwave activity in response to multisensory alcohol cues compared to social drinkers. Binge drinkers will also report more alcohol craving in response to multisensory alcohol cues compared to social drinkers. It is anticipated that brainwave responses will increase as the level of realism of the cues increases. Binge drinkers will also show stronger brainwave and craving responses to multisensory alcohol cues presented as real objects. Finally, binge drinkers will show lessened brain and craving responses when multisensory cues do not match compared to social drinkers. For example, if a photo shows an alcoholic drink but the smell presented is not alcohol related, binge drinkers will show less attentive brain activity toward those mismatched cues. Given that most alcohol cues in daily life are experienced across multiple senses simultaneously, results of this research will provide a better understanding of the relation between alcohol cue processing and craving, and will inform development of more effective programs for decreasing young adult risky drinking behavior.
- Conditions
- Drinking, Binge
- Being tested
- Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli
- Keywords
- alcohol, young adult, multisensory, cues, event-related potentials, virtual reality
- Medical subject headings
- Binge Drinking
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuliOther
Participants will complete two tasks in which they will be presented with unisensory visual and multisensory stimuli combining visual, olfactory, and/or tactile sensory modalities. Stimulus content will be either alcohol-related or neutral (non-alcohol-related). Additionally in the Passive Viewing Task, stimuli will vary on the degree of visual realism. Specifically, participants will be presented with two-dimensional images, three-dimensional virtual reality simulations, and real physical objects. In the second task, a Cross-modal Stroop-like task, participants will be asked to press a button to indicate whether the presented stimuli match in terms of the content presented in each sensory modality. Electroencephalographic (EEG) brain activity, eye movements, responses, and self-reported craving will be collected while participants complete the tasks.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Young Adult Binge Drinkers | Experimental | Participants ages 18 to 25 with a history of binge drinking (at least 2 episodes of 5+ standard drinks per episode for males/4+ standard drinks per episode for females) in the past month and at least 4+/3+ (males/females) score on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Receives: Other: Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli |
| Young Adult Social Drinkers | Active comparator | Participants ages 18 to 25 who report drinking alcohol at least once in the past month but no current history of a binge pattern (i.e., 2 or fewer drinks per episode) AND score less than 4/3 (males/females) on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Receives: Other: Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Event-related Potential Amplitudes in Response to Alcohol and Neutral Cues
Amplitude (magnitude) of electrocortical activity assessed in response to alcohol-related and neutral cues presented either visually or in visual-olfactory or visual-tactile combinations.
Measured: Baseline and follow-up (within 1 week)
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted20 Mar 2025
- Study start31 Jul 2026
- Primary completion15 Aug 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion15 Aug 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (5)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Drinking, BingeStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 100 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Rebecca Houston, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Investigators
- Rebecca J Houston, PhD, Principal investigator, Rochester Institute of Technology
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06885190
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- SRS00020124
- Other IDs
- R15AA031579-01A1
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 13 Mar 2025
- Last updated
- 27 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Hill-Bowen LD, Riedel MC, Poudel R, Salo T, Flannery JS, Camilleri JA, Eickhoff SB, Laird AR, Sutherland MT. The cue-reactivity paradigm: An ensemble of networks driving attention and cognition when viewing drug and natural reward-related stimuli. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021 Nov;130:201-213. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.08.010. Epub 2021 Aug 13.
PubMed 34400176Connor JP, Kavanagh DJ, Andrade J, May J, Feeney GF, Gullo MJ, White AM, Fry ML, Drennan J, Previte J, Tjondronegoro D. Alcohol consumption in young adults: the role of multisensory imagery. Addict Behav. 2014 Mar;39(3):721-4. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.11.023. Epub 2013 Dec 4.
PubMed 24360399Kiyak C, Simonetti ME, Norton S, Deluca P. The efficacy of cue exposure therapy on alcohol use disorders: A quantitative meta-analysis and systematic review. Addict Behav. 2023 Apr;139:107578. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107578. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
PubMed 36563480Mellentin AI, Skot L, Nielsen B, Schippers GM, Nielsen AS, Stenager E, Juhl C. Cue exposure therapy for the treatment of alcohol use disorders: A meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2017 Nov;57:195-207. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2017.07.006. Epub 2017 Jul 27.
PubMed 28781153Hone-Blanchet A, Wensing T, Fecteau S. The use of virtual reality in craving assessment and cue-exposure therapy in substance use disorders. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Oct 17;8:844. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00844. eCollection 2014.
PubMed 25368571
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 27 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Multisensory Processing of Alcohol Cues in Young Adult Binge Drinkers
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06885190
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- SRS00020124
- Conditions
- Drinking, Binge
- Keywords
- alcohol, young adult, multisensory, cues, event-related potentials, virtual reality
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 100 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Rochester Institute of TechnologyUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
- Study start
- 31 Jul 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 15 Aug 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 15 Aug 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 20 Mar 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Binge drinking is common among young adults and is related to many negative health outcomes including blackouts, risky sex, drunk driving, alcohol use disorder, and liver disease. Understanding whether there are differences in how binge drinkers respond to alcohol-related cues and whether this is related to craving is important for improving interventions and treatments. The proposed study will compare behavioral and neural processing of alcohol and non-alcohol cues in a single sensory modality (vision) with that of cues presented in multiple sensory modalities (vision, touch, and smell) with varying degrees of realistic appearance (images, virtual reality, real objects). Participants will answer questionnaires related to their physical and mental health and recent alcohol and drug use. Those eligible for the study will complete two in-person lab sessions. During both sessions they will be asked to view a series of cues which will include images on a computer screen, objects presented in virtual reality, or real objects. Sometimes these will be presented just visually and other times they will be combined with the presentation of specific smells or an object to touch. Some of these cues will be alcohol-related and others will be neutral (non-alcohol-related). Brainwave activity, as measured by the electroencephalogram (EEG), and reports of alcohol craving will be collected during these sessions. It is expected that brainwave activity will be greatest in response to multisensory cues compared to that in response unisensory (visual only) cues. It is also expected that young adults with a recent history of binge drinking will show the greatest brainwave activity in response to multisensory alcohol cues compared to social drinkers. Binge drinkers will also report more alcohol craving in response to multisensory alcohol cues compared to social drinkers. It is anticipated that brainwave responses will increase as the level of realism of the cues increases. Binge drinkers will also show stronger brainwave and craving responses to multisensory alcohol cues presented as real objects. Finally, binge drinkers will show lessened brain and craving responses when multisensory cues do not match compared to social drinkers. For example, if a photo shows an alcoholic drink but the smell presented is not alcohol related, binge drinkers will show less attentive brain activity toward those mismatched cues. Given that most alcohol cues in daily life are experienced across multiple senses simultaneously, results of this research will provide a better understanding of the relation between alcohol cue processing and craving, and will inform development of more effective programs for decreasing young adult risky drinking behavior.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Young Adult Binge Drinkers | Experimental | Other: Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuliParticipants ages 18 to 25 with a history of binge drinking (at least 2 episodes of 5+ standard drinks per episode for males/4+ standard drinks per episode for females) in the past month and at least 4+/3+ (males/females) score on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. |
| Young Adult Social Drinkers | Active comparator | Other: Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuliParticipants ages 18 to 25 who report drinking alcohol at least once in the past month but no current history of a binge pattern (i.e., 2 or fewer drinks per episode) AND score less than 4/3 (males/females) on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 25 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult
Key inclusion criteria (2 listed)
- ages 18 to 25 years old
- meet criteria for either the binge drinker or social drinker groups previously described
Key exclusion criteria (9 listed)
- history of head injury involving loss of consciousness of 10+ minutes
- colorblindness
- hearing, tactile, olfactory or uncorrected vision deficits
- history of seizures
- neurological disorder diagnosis
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuliParticipants will complete two tasks in which they will be presented with unisensory visual and multisensory stimuli combining visual, olfactory, and/or tactile sensory modalities. Stimulus content will be either alcohol-related or neutral (non-alcohol-related). Additionally in the Passive Viewing Task, stimuli will vary on the degree of visual realism. Specifically, participants will be presented with two-dimensional images, three-dimensional virtual reality simulations, and real physical objects. In the second task, a Cross-modal Stroop-like task, participants will be asked to press a button to indicate whether the presented stimuli match in terms of the content presented in each sensory modality. Electroencephalographic (EEG) brain activity, eye movements, responses, and self-reported craving will be collected while participants complete the tasks. | Other | Young Adult Binge Drinkers, Young Adult Social Drinkers |
Primary outcome
Event-related Potential Amplitudes in Response to Alcohol and Neutral Cues
Time frame: Baseline and follow-up (within 1 week)
Amplitude (magnitude) of electrocortical activity assessed in response to alcohol-related and neutral cues presented either visually or in visual-olfactory or visual-tactile combinations.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 27 Oct 2026.
- Background: PubMed 34400176Hill-Bowen LD, Riedel MC, Poudel R, Salo T, Flannery JS, Camilleri JA, Eickhoff SB, Laird AR, Sutherland MT. The cue-reactivity paradigm: An ensemble of networks driving attention and cognition when viewing drug and natural reward-related stimuli. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021 Nov;130:201-213. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.08.010. Epub 2021 Aug 13.
- Background: PubMed 24360399Connor JP, Kavanagh DJ, Andrade J, May J, Feeney GF, Gullo MJ, White AM, Fry ML, Drennan J, Previte J, Tjondronegoro D. Alcohol consumption in young adults: the role of multisensory imagery. Addict Behav. 2014 Mar;39(3):721-4. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.11.023. Epub 2013 Dec 4.
- Background: PubMed 36563480Kiyak C, Simonetti ME, Norton S, Deluca P. The efficacy of cue exposure therapy on alcohol use disorders: A quantitative meta-analysis and systematic review. Addict Behav. 2023 Apr;139:107578. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107578. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
- Background: PubMed 28781153Mellentin AI, Skot L, Nielsen B, Schippers GM, Nielsen AS, Stenager E, Juhl C. Cue exposure therapy for the treatment of alcohol use disorders: A meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2017 Nov;57:195-207. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2017.07.006. Epub 2017 Jul 27.
- Background: PubMed 25368571Hone-Blanchet A, Wensing T, Fecteau S. The use of virtual reality in craving assessment and cue-exposure therapy in substance use disorders. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Oct 17;8:844. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00844. eCollection 2014.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Rebecca J Houston, PhD principal investigator
Rochester Institute of Technology
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Presentation of alcohol-related and neutral stimuli in people with Drinking, Binge, run by Rochester Institute of Technology at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 9 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 27 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Rebecca J Houston, PhD (585-475-5205, rjhgss@rit.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Event-related Potential Amplitudes in Response to Alcohol and Neutral Cues (time frame: Baseline and follow-up (within 1 week)). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06885190, which also lists 5 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 27 Oct 2026.