Attentional bias to cannabis stimuli in people with cannabis use disorder

Quinones-Valera, M, Fraser, MI, Solowij, N ORCID: 0000-0002-5222-5637, Verdejo-Garcia, A ORCID: 0000-0001-8874-9339, Cousijn, J ORCID: 0000-0002-7699-2582, Abbott, G, Dunsford, S ORCID: 0009-0005-0215-3603, Paloubis, A, McTavish, E ORCID: 0009-0002-0685-0690, Ramamurthy, JR, Jones, A ORCID: 0000-0001-5951-889X, Chan, G, Greenwood, L, Manning, V and Lorenzetti, V (2026) Attentional bias to cannabis stimuli in people with cannabis use disorder. Addictive Behaviors, 184. p. 108838. ISSN 0306-4603

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Abstract

Background Around one in five people who use cannabis develop a cannabis use disorder (CUD) during their lifetime. Attentional bias toward substance-related stimuli is theorised to drive substance-seeking behaviour, contributing to the development of addiction and relapse. There is mixed evidence of cannabis-related attentional bias in individuals with CUD and its association with cannabis quantity and CUD severity, and confounders (e.g., alcohol, nicotine use). We aimed to examine cannabis attentional bias in non-treatment-seeking adults with a CUD (n = 74) versus controls (n = 30), and in relation to levels of cannabis and nicotine use, adjusting for alcohol use. Methods Attentional bias was measured using a visual probe task. To detect attentional bias differences between groups (CUD, controls), we ran linear mixed-effect models with reaction times (RTs) to cannabis versus neutral images as the outcome variable, adjusting for intra-individual variability and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA, 200/500 ms). Within the CUD group only, we explore the association between attentional bias and cannabis quantity, craving, Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test − Revised (CUDIT-R) scores, image valence ratings, and nicotine use. All models were adjusted for alcohol use. Results No significant effects were found for group, cannabis quantity, craving, CUDIT-R scores, or nicotine use on attentional bias toward cannabis cues. Conclusion Findings suggest that non-treatment seekers with CUD do not exhibit attentional bias to cannabis cues. Replication in treatment-seeking samples is needed to determine whether attentional bias has clinical relevance, using objective measures (e.g., eye tracking).

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	5202 Biological Psychology; 52 Psychology; Cannabinoid Research; Brain Disorders; Substance Misuse; Clinical Research; Neurosciences; Drug Abuse (NIDA only); Behavioral and Social Science; Alcoholism, Alcohol Use and Health; Tobacco; Mental health; 3 Good Health and Well Being; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; 1701 Psychology; Substance Abuse; 4206 Public health; 5202 Biological psychology; 5203 Clinical and health psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date of acceptance:	17 August 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	25 August 2026
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2026 12:39
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2026 12:39
DOI or ID number:	10.1016/j.addbeh.2026.108838
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29195

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