Neurocognitive consequences of adolescent drug use

描述（由申请人提供）： 青少年吸毒对认知功能的影响是一个重大的公共卫生问题。青春期标志着相当大的神经发育时期，特别是在控制注意力和行为冲动的大脑区域。在大脑发育的这些关键时期使用药物可能会阻碍或改变神经成熟的正常过程，导致这些区域的长期认知缺陷。人们还十分关注的是，用于治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍的哌醋甲酯等兴奋剂药物可能会使青少年对其他兴奋剂的奖赏和解除抑制作用敏感，从而增加他们在进入青年期时滥用的风险。尽管人们越来越关注青少年吸毒的后果，但对青少年吸毒史可能导致的特定行为和认知缺陷知之甚少。拟议的R21项目旨在识别与青少年吸毒史相关的特定抑制性神经认知缺陷，并研究这种关联如何由药物滥用、多动症和行为障碍（CD）的两种既定青少年风险因素介导。抑制缺陷将在两个功能领域进行检查：控制行为冲动和选择注意力的能力相关的刺激。研究将使用行为和心理生理学技术（EEG），以确定具体的抑制赤字之前，和之后，青少年吸毒史。药物激发试验也提出了确定潜在的差异，急性敏感性的神经认知和奖励的影响，滥用药物作为青少年吸毒史和青少年的历史ADHD和CD的功能。本研究的长期目标是区分导致青少年早发性吸毒风险的先前抑制缺陷与代表青少年长期吸毒史后潜在神经损伤的抑制缺陷。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The effects of adolescent drug use on cognitive functioning is a significant public health concern. Adolescence marks a time of considerable neural development, particularly in brain regions that control attention and behavioral impulses. Drug use during these critical periods of brain development could impede or alter the normal course of neural maturation, resulting in long-term cognitive deficits in these areas. There is also considerable interest in the possibility that stimulant medications, such as methylphenidate, used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), could sensitize adolescents to the rewarding and disinhibiting effects of other stimulants, thus increasing their risk of abuse as this population enters young adulthood. Despite growing concern about the consequences of adolescent drug use, little is known about the specific behavioral and cognitive deficits that might result from a history of adolescent drug use. The proposed R21 project is designed to identify specific inhibitory-based, neurocognitive deficits associated with a history of adolescent drug use and to examine how this association is mediated by two established adolescent risk factors for substance abuse, ADHD and conduct disorder (CD). Inhibitory deficits will be examined in two domains of functioning: control of behavioral impulses and the ability to select attention to relevant stimuli. Studies will use behavioral and psychophysiological techniques (EEG) to identify specific inhibitory deficits prior to, and following, a history of adolescent drug use. Drug challenge tests are also proposed to identify potential differences in the acute sensitivity to the neurocognitive and rewarding effects of abused drugs as a function of adolescent drug use history and adolescent history of ADHD and CD. The long-term objective of this research is to distinguish antecedent inhibitory deficits that contribute to risk of early-onset adolescent drug use, from resultant inhibitory deficits that represent the underlying neurological insult following a protracted history of adolescent drug use.