# Innovative Physiological Predictors of College Binge Drinking

> **NIH NIH R15** · TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $357,591

## Abstract

Project Summary
College binge drinking is a significant public health problem that has been associated with injury,
assault, unsafe sex, academic problems, alcohol dependence, drunk driving, and even death. In
order to prevent and treat college binge drinking, it is important to better understand factors that may
lead students to consume alcohol in this fashion. Converging lines of evidence suggest that
participants’ behavioral and physiological reactions to alcohol cues (i.e., cue-reactivity) contribute to
alcohol consumption and loss of inhibitory control over a drinking episode. Alcohol cues in the
environment may lead college students to crave and seek alcohol, while impaired inhibitory control
may allow the drinking episode to escalate into a binge. These factors have largely been measured
under controlled laboratory conditions, but new innovations such as continuous transdermal alcohol
biosensors and ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) provide a unique opportunity to examine
correlations between life and lab. The proposed study is designed to address these issues through a
single laboratory assessment of cue-reactivity and inhibitory control via event-related potentials,
followed by a 12-day field phase with alcohol biosensor monitoring plus EMAs. This design will allow
us not only to capture the events leading up to a natural binge drinking episode, but also to model the
underlying causal processes of binge drinking by combining laboratory and field measurements.
Results of this study could provide new targets for real-time interventions for college binge drinking
and could ultimately be applied to the development of cognitive bias modification programs for the
treatment and prevention of excessive alcohol consumption on college campuses. Undergraduate
student researchers at Texas State University will be involved in all aspects of the proposed
project, providing them with firsthand experience in cutting-edge addiction research and
encouraging continued education and employment in health-related fields.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9965074
- **Project number:** 1R15AA026076-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Natalie A. Ceballos
- **Activity code:** R15 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $357,591
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-05 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9965074

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9965074, Innovative Physiological Predictors of College Binge Drinking (1R15AA026076-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9965074. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*