Timing Effects of Heavy Alcohol Initiation on Adolescent Neurodevelopment

摘要： 青春期是一个发展时期，在此期间，个人从事冒险行为， 开始使用酒精或其他药物。过去的研究表明，早期发病与 酒精使用和在以后的生活中更容易上瘾。青春期也是一个 相当多的神经成熟，特别是在被认为有助于更高层次认知的额叶脑区， 例如决策和抑制。在大脑发育的关键时期大量饮酒 可能永久性地破坏成熟过程，导致这些功能的长期缺陷，从而 增加了随后的物质使用行为的风险。拟议的R 01项目旨在 前瞻性和纵向研究的影响，发展阶段对酒精的影响， 青少年认知，脑功能和脑结构，使用神经成像和神经心理学 测试技术这个项目将研究在执行测试期间的神经心理学表现 功能，执行和冒险fMRI任务期间的大脑功能，前额叶和 边缘区和额纹状体白色物质的完整性在250个危险，非使用12-14岁的青年（基于 酗酒家族史）。我们假设，在青春期饮酒的青少年在 这些措施相比，发展匹配的非饮酒青年，和青年谁发起了沉重的 在青春期较早饮酒的青少年比在青春期较晚开始大量饮酒的青少年表现出更大的异常。 发展这项前瞻性研究将回答关于发育时间的关键问题， 青少年大量饮酒会影响大脑发育。

Abstract: Adolescence is a developmental period during which individuals engage in risk-taking behavior and are likely to initiate use of alcohol or other drugs. Past research suggests a strong correlation between early age of onset of alcohol use and a heightened vulnerability to addiction later in life. Adolescence is also a time of considerable neuromaturation, particularly in frontal brain regions thought to subserve higher level cognition, such as decision making and inhibition. Heavy alcohol use during these critical periods of brain development may permanently disrupt the course of maturation, resulting in long-term deficits in these functions and thereby increasing the risk of subsequent substance use behavior. The proposed R01 project is designed to prospectively and longitudinally examine the influence of developmental stage on the effects of alcohol on adolescent cognition, brain functioning, and brain structure, using neuroimaging and neuropsychological testing techniques. This project will examine neuropsychological performance during tests of executive functioning, brain functioning during executive and risk taking fMRI tasks, brain structure in prefrontal and limbic regions, and frontostriatal white matter integrity in 250 at-risk, non-using 12-14-year-old youth (based on family history of alcoholism). We hypothesize that youth who drink in adolescence will show abnormalities on these measures compared to developmentally-matched non-drinking youth, and that youth who initiate heavy drinking earlier in puberty will show greater abnormalities than teens that initiate heavy drinking later in development. This prospective study will answer critical questions about how developmental timing of adolescent heavy alcohol use initiation affects the developing brain.