Effect of Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Neural Processes During Decisions to Engage in HIV Risk Behaviors

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Objective: The purpose of this protocol is to identify the neural substrates by which acute alcohol intoxication leads to an increase in HIV risk behavior during sexual encounters. An additional aim is to characterize the influence of negative and positive social context on the neural mechanism by w...

Objective: The purpose of this protocol is to identify the neural substrates by which acute alcohol intoxication leads to an increase in HIV risk behavior during sexual encounters. An additional aim is to characterize the influence of negative and positive social context on the neural mechanism by which acute alcohol intoxication leads to an increase in HIV risk behavior during sexual encounters. This study uses a two-visit alcohol-administration procedure to examine alcohol-induced changes in brain activity during decisions about risky sex. Study Population: Healthy community participants who binge drink occasionally but do not have alcohol use disorder. Design: Participants will complete baseline measures of sexual history and preferences, HIV risk and knowledge, and tasks designed to measure delay discounting of protected sex. At the first of two visits, subjects will then receive either alcohol or placebo beverages to increase their blood alcohol concentration to approximately 0.08g/dl. Then, participants will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a protected sex discounting task. At a second visit, participants will receive the opposite type of beverage (alcohol or placebo). Participants will be randomly assigned to order of beverages. Outcome: The primary outcome of this study is changes in neural activity during protect sex discounting during the alcohol compared to placebo visits. Behavioral changes (i.e., willingness to engage in unprotected sexual encounters) will also investigated as a primary outcome.

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