Citation

Aloi J, Blair KS, Crum KI, Bashford-Largo J, Zhang R, Lukoff J, Carollo E, White SF, Hwang S, Filbey FM, Dobbertin M, Blair RJR. Biol. Psychiatry Cogn. Neurosci. Neuroimaging 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Center for Neurobehavioral Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, Nebraska.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Society of Biological Psychiatry, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.02.003

PMID

32299790

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The two most commonly used illegal substances by adolescents in the United States are alcohol and cannabis. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) have been associated with dysfunction in decision-making processes in adolescents. One potential mechanism for these impairments is thought to be related to abnormalities in reward and punishment processing. However, very little work has directly examined potential differential relationships between AUD and CUD symptom severity and neural dysfunction during decision making in adolescents.

METHODS: In the current study, 154 youths participated in a passive avoidance learning task during functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the relationship between relative severity of AUD/CUD and dysfunction in processing reward and punishment feedback.

RESULTS: Increasing Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test scores were associated with reduced neural differentiation between reward and punishment feedback within regions of striatum, posterior cingulate cortex, and parietal cortex. However, increasing Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test scores were not associated with any neural dysfunction during the passive avoidance task.

CONCLUSIONS: These data expand on emerging literature that relative severity of AUD is associated with reduced responsivity to rewards in adolescents and that there are differential associations between AUD and CUD symptoms and neurocircuitry dysfunction in the developing adolescent brain.

Copyright © 2020 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Alcohol use disorder; Instrumental learning; Reward; Striatum; fMRI