{
  "id": 11232595,
  "title": "Reduced Control Over Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer in Human Addiction: A Systematic Investigation Across Alcohol Use Disorder and Smoking Status",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/reduced-control-over-pavlovian-to-instrumental-transfer-in-human",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.25.754324v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The study examined the impact of Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) interference on goal-directed behavior in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and smoking status. PIT interference was found to be greater in participants with AUD compared to those without, with reduced conflict-related activation in specific brain regions. The severity of AUD and alcohol consumption correlated with the magnitude of PIT interference in this population. However, the study suggests that the enhanced PIT interference may not extend to other substances like nicotine, and a reduced recruitment of prefrontal control networks during PIT conflicts may be a potential mechanism underlying this phenomenon and its association with clinically relevant outcomes.",
  "summary": "Pavlovian conditioned stimuli can compromise goal-directed behavior, particularly when they conflict with the required instrumental response. Previous research linked an increased impact of such Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) interference to risky drinking and alcohol dependence. However, it remained unclear whether the observed behavioral and neural alterations generalize to the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}