Drug Abuse, Social Decision-Making, and Sex-Related Functional Brain Asymmetry

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This research application is in response to #RFA-DA-06-004. At the heart of drug and alcohol abuse is bad decision-making, especially in response to social influences. This decision-making defect is highly reminiscent of the social decision-making impairments that characterize neurological patients with damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC). The VMPC patients provide a neurological model of social decision- making gone awry. There is evidence at both preclinical and clinical levels that the VMPC is a key brain region in drug abuse, and we propose that VMPC dysfunction and defective social decision-making may characterize individuals who abuse and become addicted to drugs and alcohol. In this research application, we plan to conduct studies in neurological patients in order to flesh out the neurobiological underpinnings of social decision-making, taking advantage of the unique Iowa Patient Registry that contains neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data for thousands of patients. A particular focus is on gender differences. We have intriguing preliminary findings suggesting that there might be an important sex-related difference in the relationship between the VMPC and social decision-making: in men, the right VMPC might be critical, whereas in women, the left VMPC might be critical. The experiments will test three specific aims: (1) To determine whether there is sex-related functional asymmetry of the VMPC in regard to social decision- making, using tasks such as the Ultimatum Game, Trust Game, Iowa Gambling Task, and Ellsberg Tasks; (2) To extend the investigation of sex-related functional asymmetry to other brain structures known to be critical for social and affective processes related to decision-making, namely, the amygdala and the insular cortex; (3) To investigate developmental influences on the relationship between the VMPC and social- decision making and emotional processing, by studying patients who incurred VMPC damage early in life. The experiments will furnish important new information about the neurobiological underpinnings of social decision-making and emotional processing. The link with substance abuse is direct: the decision-making deficits in VMPC patients have striking similarities with those evident in drug and alcohol abusers and addicts ("myopia for the future"). Thus, our research could help pinpoint sources of neural dysfunction that contribute to bad decision-making of the type that characterizes drug and alcohol abuse. Public health relevance: This research will help us understand how various parts of the brain are important for social decision-making and emotional processing, whether there are gender differences in these brain- behavior relationships, and how these relationships develop. The research could help inform treatment and prevention of drug and alcohol abuse disorders, as well as social conduct disorders, personality disorders, and anxiety and mood disorders, all of which have high comorbidity with drug and alcohol abuse.