Imaging Individual Differences in Risk Taking

描述(由申请人提供)：过度冒险导致一系列的病理情况，包括吸毒成瘾。风险承担的个体差异可能是成瘾易感性和治疗反应的重要决定因素，但人们对这种差异易感性背后的神经基础知之甚少。气球模拟风险任务(BART)范式上的冒险绩效表现出稳健可靠的个体差异，提示BART绩效可能代表了个体的冒险行为表型。将fMRI与BART结合使用，我们的初步数据表明，受试者的冒险行为与中脑边缘激活呈负相关。该项目将开始评估BOLD和ASL灌注功能磁共振成像在描述健康受试者和可卡因成瘾患者个体间冒险差异的神经基础方面的效用。虽然局部脑功能将在BART期间进行评估，但本研究也将探索基于与任务背景无关的静息脑功能测量来表征个体冒险表型的能力。从这项研究中获得的新知识将对理解和管理药物成瘾和其他受损的危险行为中的过度冒险行为具有相关性，未来的研究可能会将这些措施作为药物滥用障碍的脆弱性或治疗反应的预测指标。 公共卫生相关性：过度冒险和糟糕的决策是吸毒者和成瘾者的标志性行为表型。虽然众所周知，个体对药物滥用和其他冒险行为的易感性不同，但人们对这种个体差异背后的神经生物学基础知之甚少。该项目将使用多模式脑成像技术和气球模拟风险任务(BART)范式来评估健康受试者和可卡因成瘾患者中不同风险行为表型的神经预测因子，并确定为什么一些人过度冒险，这可能与药物滥用和成瘾的脆弱性有关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Excessive risk taking underlies a range of pathological conditions, including drug addiction. Individual differences in risk taking may be an important determinant of both vulnerability to addiction and response to therapy, yet little is known about the neural basis underlying such differential vulnerability. Risk taking performance on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) paradigm showed robust and reliable individual difference, suggesting that BART performance may be representative of an individual's risk taking behavior phenotype. Using fMRI with the BART, our preliminary data has demonstrated that subjects' risk taking performance negatively correlated with the mesolimbic activation. This project will begin to evaluate the utility of both BOLD and ASL perfusion fMRI for characterizing the neural basis of inter-individual differences in risk taking in both healthy subjects and patients with cocaine addiction. While regional brain function will be assessed during the BART, this study will also explore the capability of characterizing individual risk taking phenotype based on measures of resting brain function that are independent of task context. The new knowledge gained from this study will have relevance for understanding and managing excessive risk taking in drug addiction and other impaired risk behaviors, and future studies may incorporate these measures as predictors of vulnerability or treatment response in substance abuse disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Excessive risk taking and poor decision making is a hallmark behavioral phenotype of drug abusers and addicts. Although it is widely known that individuals differ in their vulnerability to drug abuse and other risk taking behaviors, little is known about the neurobiological basis underlying such individual differences. This project will use multimodal brain imaging techniques and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) paradigm to evaluate neural predictors of differential risk behavior phenotype in both healthy subjects and patients with cocaine addiction, and identify why some people are excessively risk-seeking that may be associated with vulnerability to drug abuse and addiction.