Brain Structural and Functional Predictors of Adolescent Alcohol Use

描述(申请人提供)：神经成像研究表明，广泛的皮质成熟(例如，灰质皮质厚度减少)发生在青春期，这与更有效和更成熟的大脑功能相对应。这些正在进行的成熟过程伴随着青少年冒险行为的显著增加，特别是狂欢 饮酒(即女性一次饮酒4杯，男性饮酒5杯)，近25%的高中生报告在过去两周内酗酒[34]。酗酒会增加青少年参与其他危险行为的可能性，如酒驾、与受损的司机一起骑车、暴力、不安全的性行为和其他物质使用[40]，因此，酗酒是一个极大的公共卫生问题。青春期酗酒等冒险行为的倾向似乎有很大的神经生物学成分，但大脑功能和危险的酗酒之间的联系尚未明确界定。新出现的证据表明，酗酒青少年大脑反应的异常可能会导致未来的物质使用[41，63]，特别是对工作记忆任务的反应[7，20，68]。了解神经因素对开始或物质使用的影响将有助于将易感风险因素与酗酒造成的侮辱区分开来，并有助于确定适合青少年的预防和干预技术。因此，这项研究的目的是使用：(1)皮质厚度来前瞻性地检查大脑结构 指标和(2)使用功能磁共振成像对工作记忆任务的大脑反应，在一个相当大的纵向样本青少年(N&gt；120)中，首先在他们饮酒之前进行研究，以确定大脑结构和功能是否使青少年容易未来大量饮酒。这项研究将利用先进的多模式成像技术，阐明大脑结构和功能对青春期开始大量饮酒的影响，并将识别神经风险标记物，以针对预防和干预努力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuroimaging studies have shown that extensive cortical maturation (e.g., reductions in gray matter cortical thickness) occurs during adolescence, which correspond to more efficient and mature brain functioning. These ongoing maturational processes parallel significant increases in adolescent risk taking, particularly binge drinking (i.e., >4 drinks for females, >5 drinks for males on one occasion), with almost 25% of high school seniors reporting binge drinking in the past 2 weeks [34]. Binge drinking is of great public health concern as it increases an adolescent's likelihood of engaging in other risky behaviors like drunk driving, riding with an impaired driver, violence, unsafe sex, and other substance use [40]. Proclivity to engage in risk taking behaviors such as binge drinking during adolescence appears to have a large neurobiological component, but the link between brain functioning and risky binge drinking has not been clearly defined. Emerging evidence suggests that abnormalities in alcohol-naive adolescents' brain response might contribute to future substance use [41, 63], particularly reaction to tasks of working memory [7, 20, 68]. Understanding the neurological contribution to the initiation or substance use will help disentangle predisposing risk factors from insults incurred due to binge drinking and will help determine appropriate prevention and intervention techniques for adolescents. Therefore, the aim of this investigation is to prospectively examine brain structure using: (1) cortical thickness indices and (2) brain response to a working memory task using fMRI in a sizable longitudinal sample of adolescents (N>120), first studied before they have ever drank alcohol, to see if brain structure and function predispose adolescents to future heavy drinking. This research will clarify the effects of brain structure and functioning on initiating heavy drinking during adolescence, using advanced multimodal imaging techniques, and will identifying neural risk markers to target prevention and intervention efforts.