bioRxiv
June 2025
Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct that typically increases during adolescence and is implicated in risk for substance use disorders that develop later in life. Here, we take a multivariate approach to identify latent dimensions of impulsivity, broadly defined, among youth enrolled in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and explore associations with individual differences in demographics, substance-use initiation and canonical resting state networks (N=11,872, ages ~9-10). Using principal component analysis, we identified eight latent impulsivity dimensions, the top three of which together accounted for the majority of the variance across all impulsivity assessments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry
February 2025
Background: Cannabis use is common, particularly during emerging adulthood when brain development is ongoing, and its use is associated with harmful outcomes for a subset of people. An improved understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying risk for problem-level use is critical to facilitate the development of more effective prevention and treatment approaches.
Methods: In the current study, we applied a whole-brain, data-driven, machine learning approach to identify neural features predictive of problem-level cannabis use in a nonclinical sample of college students (n = 191, 58% female) based on reward task functional connectivity data.
Purpose Of Review: In the context of ongoing decriminalization and legalization of cannabis, a better understanding of how THC and CBD impact anxiety is critical to elucidate the risks of recreational cannabis use as well as to establish the therapeutic potential of cannabis products for anxiety-related applications.
Recent Findings: Recent literature supports anxiogenic effects of THC administration, which may be attenuated among regular cannabis users. Data regarding anxiolytic effects of CBD administration are mixed.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
April 2024
Background: Individual differences in reward processing are central to heightened risk-taking behaviors during adolescence, but there is inconsistent evidence for the relationship between risk-taking phenotypes and the neural substrates of these behaviors.
Methods: Here, we identify latent features of reward in an attempt to provide a unifying framework linking together aspects of the brain and behavior during early adolescence using a multivariate pattern learning approach. Data (N = 8295; n male = 4190; n female = 4105) were acquired as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study and included neuroimaging (regional neural activity responses during reward anticipation) and behavioral (e.
Importance: Alcohol misuse in adolescence is a leading cause of disability and mortality in youth and is associated with higher risk for alcohol use disorder. Brain mechanisms underlying risk of alcohol misuse may inform prevention and intervention efforts.
Objective: To identify neuromarkers of alcohol misuse using a data-driven approach, with specific consideration of neurodevelopmental sex differences.
Mol Psychiatry
August 2023
Treatment outcomes for individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) are variable and more individualized approaches may be needed. Cross-validated, machine-learning methods are well-suited for probing neural mechanisms of treatment outcomes. Our prior work applied one such approach, connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM), to identify dissociable and substance-specific neural networks of cocaine and opioid abstinence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychiatry Res Commun
December 2022
The current review evaluates the potential of cannabidiol (CBD) as a promising pharmacotherapy for social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although a number of evidence-based treatments for SAD are available, less than a third of affected individuals experience symptom remission after one year of treatment. Therefore, improved treatment options are urgently needed, and CBD is one candidate medication that may have certain benefits over current pharmacotherapies, including the absence of sedating side effects, reduced abuse liability, and rapid course of action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen are more vulnerable to internalizing disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCannabis use is common among adolescents and emerging adults and is associated with significant adverse consequences for a subset of users. Rates of use peak between the ages of 18-25, yet the neurobiological consequences for neural systems that are actively developing during this time remain poorly understood. In particular, cannabis exposure may interfere with adaptive development of white matter pathways underlying connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex, including the cingulum and anterior thalamic radiations (ATR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Psychiatry
August 2022
Predictive modeling using neuroimaging data has the potential to improve our understanding of the neurobiology underlying psychiatric disorders and putatively information interventions. Accordingly, there is a plethora of literature reviewing published studies, the mathematics underlying machine learning, and the best practices for using these approaches. As our knowledge of mental health and machine learning continue to evolve, we instead aim to look forward and "predict" topics that we believe will be important in current and future studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdolescence is the peak period for the emergence of substance use, which can lead to long-term psychosocial, occupational and interpersonal complications. Ongoing large-scale, longitudinal, consortium initiatives, such as the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, offer unprecedented opportunities to elucidate key risk factors for problematic substance use in a well-powered sample and to examine how changes in risk factors relate to symptoms across time. Delay discounting has been proposed as a putative risk marker for early substance-use initiation and other forms of psychopathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
April 2022
Background: Regardless of the precise mechanism, all neurodevelopmental models of risk assume that, at the population level, there exist subgroups of individuals that share similar patterns of neural function and development-and that these subgroups somehow relate to psychiatric risk. However, the existence of multiple neurodevelopmental subgroups at the population level has not been assessed previously.
Methods: In the current study, cross-validated latent profile analysis was used to test for the presence of empirically derived, brain-based developmental subgroups using functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 6758 individuals (49.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
September 2022
Background: Smoking behavior during the first 24 hours of a quit attempt is a significant predictor of longer-term abstinence, yet little is known about the neurobiology of early tobacco abstinence. Specifically, the effects of acute tobacco deprivation and reinstatement on brain function-particularly at the level of large-scale network dynamics and assessed across the entire brain-remain incompletely understood. To address this gap, this study used a mixed within- and between-subjects design to assess the effects of smoking status (yes/no smoker) and state (deprived vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOpioid use disorder is a major public health crisis. While effective treatments are available, outcomes vary widely across individuals and relapse rates remain high. Understanding neural mechanisms of treatment response may facilitate the development of personalized and/or novel treatment approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Addict Rep
April 2019
Aims: (1) To identify trajectories of cannabis use across adolescence, (2) to measure the influence of cannabis use characteristics on functional connectivity of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and (3) to assess whether patterns of functional connectivity related to cannabis use are associated with psychosocial functioning 2 years later.
Design: The Pitt Mother and Child Project (PMCP) is a prospective, longitudinal study of male youth at high risk for psychopathology based on family income and gender.
Setting: Participants were recruited between age 6 and 17 months from the Women, Infants and Children Nutritional Supplement program (WIC) in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
November 2016
We propose that structural and functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) represents a critical component of adolescent developmental psychopathology. We hypothesize that connectivity of the ACC, a hub for integrating cognitive, affective, and social information to guide self-regulation across domains, supports adaptive development of self-regulation during adolescence and that, conversely, disrupted maturation of ACC connectivity contributes to the development of depression. To integrate findings on typical development, we report results of a meta-analysis of diffusion imaging findings of typical adolescent development of the cingulum and anterior thalamic radiations, the tracts most relevant to ACC connectivity, and provide a critical review of the literature on ACC functional connectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Diffusion MRI provides a non-invasive way of estimating structural connectivity in the brain. Many studies have used diffusion phantoms as benchmarks to assess the performance of different tractography reconstruction algorithms and assumed that the results can be applied to in vivo studies. Here we examined whether quality metrics derived from a common, publically available, diffusion phantom can reliably predict tractography performance in human white matter tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOffspring from families with multiple cases of alcohol dependence have a greater likelihood of developing alcohol dependence and related substance use disorders. Greater susceptibility for these disorders may be related to cerebellar morphology. Because posterior regions of the cerebellum are associated with cognitive abilities, we investigated whether high-risk offspring would display regionally specific differences in cerebellar morphology and whether these would be related to working memory performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Familial loading for alcohol dependence (AD) and variation in genes reported to be associated with AD or BMI were tested in a longitudinal study.
Materials & Methods: Growth curve analyses of BMI data collected at approximately yearly intervals and obesity status (BMI > 30) were examined.
Results: High-risk males were found to have higher BMI than low-risk males, beginning at age 15 years (2.
Objective: Individuals with multiple alcohol-dependent (AD) relatives are at increased risk for substance use disorders (SUDs). Prospective, longitudinal studies of high-risk (HR) individuals afford the opportunity to determine potential risk markers of SUDs. The current study assessed the effect of familial risk and genetic variation on Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance and tested for an association between IGT performance and SUD outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF