Brain Structural and Functional Predictors of Adolescent Alcohol Use

描述（由申请人提供）：神经影像学研究表明，广泛的皮质成熟（例如，灰质皮质厚度的减少）发生在青春期，这对应于更有效和成熟的大脑功能。这些正在进行的成熟过程与青少年冒险行为的显著增加相平行，特别是狂欢 饮用（即，女性饮酒超过4杯，男性饮酒超过5杯），近25%的高中毕业生报告在过去2周内酗酒[34]。酗酒是一个巨大的公共卫生问题，因为它增加了青少年从事其他危险行为的可能性，如酒后驾车，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]。在青春期从事冒险行为的倾向，如酗酒，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还没有明确的定义。新出现的证据表明，酒精初治青少年的大脑反应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]。了解神经系统对开始或物质使用的贡献将有助于将易感风险因素与酗酒造成的伤害区分开来，并有助于确定青少年适当的预防和干预技术。因此，本研究的目的是前瞻性地检查大脑结构使用：（1）皮质厚度 指标和（2）使用功能磁共振成像在一个相当大的纵向样本的青少年（N>120）的工作记忆任务的大脑反应，首先研究他们以前曾经喝过酒，看看大脑结构和功能是否倾向于青少年未来大量饮酒。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大量饮酒的影响，并将确定神经风险标志物，以针对预防和干预工作。

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.