Kate Brody Nooner

Neurodevelopmental models implicate dopaminergic and neurocognitive maturation in adolescent risk-taking, yet their joint contribution to substance use trajectories in humans remains unclear. We examined basal ganglia tissue iron, a marker of dopamine-related neurobiology, alongside impulsivity and inhibitory control in relation to longitudinal substance use patterns in the NCANDA-A cohort (N = 802; ages 12–30; 6,078 visits). Growth Mixture Models identified four trajectories: no/low use (30% of participants), youth peak (26%), adolescent increasing (17%), and adult increasing (26%). Substance use, inhibitory control, and tissue iron increased with age, while impulsivity declined. Greater substance use was associated with heightened impulsivity, low inhibitory control, and low tissue iron, prominently in early adolescence among youth peak patterns. Trajectories were further distinguished by divergent maturation of impulsivity and tissue iron. Results suggest that developmental variation in tissue iron and neurocognition contribute to youth substance use, highlighting adolescence as a sensitive window for risk stratification and prevention.

Attrition can bias longitudinal findings, including those on alcohol use. We examined predictors of follow-up engagement in a multi-site neuroimaging cohort of youth. Data were drawn from the first nine annual waves of the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA), which recruited 831 participants aged 12-21 years in 2013-2014 (52% female). Follow-up engagement was modeled as the total number of completed follow-up visits (0-9, excluding baseline) using Poisson regression with multiple imputation and family-cluster-robust standard errors. Secondary analyses examined categorical engagement levels. Primary predictors included exceeding age- and sex-specific baseline alcohol use thresholds, externalizing symptoms, race, and demographic and family factors. Overall engagement was high, with participants completing an average of approximately 9 of 10 possible visits. In Poisson models, exceeding baseline alcohol use thresholds was associated with a modest reduction in follow-up visits, although this did not reach statistical significance (IRR = 0.940, 95% CI: 0.881-1.004, p = .064). Externalizing symptoms were not significantly associated with engagement (IRR = 1.001, 95% CI: 0.998-1.003, p = .647). Sibling co-enrollment was associated with greater engagement (IRR = 1.058, 95% CI: 1.021-1.097, p = .002), while other factors showed small or non-significant associations. Follow-up engagement was generally high across adolescence into young adulthood. Exceeding baseline alcohol use thresholds showed a modest association with reduced engagement, although not statistically significant in the count model. Externalizing symptoms were not associated with engagement. Categorical analyses suggested a stronger association between exceeding baseline alcohol use thresholds and lower engagement groups. These findings may help identify participants who could benefit from additional engagement efforts.

Alcohol urge regulation, drug urge regulation, motivational attitudes and alcohol expectancies have been linked to substance use, but their combined influence on reward sensitivity and behaviour remains underexplored. This is particularly critical during adolescence and young adulthood, a period of heightened susceptibility to alcohol use and risky behaviours. Using data from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA), an accelerated longitudinal design that includes all age groups at each time point, this study examined how these factors interact to shape substance use behaviours, including the onset of regular drinking, binge drinking, drug use and sexual intercourse. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA/CFA) utilized data from Years 7 to 9, comprising 430 participants across all age groups, to identify latent incentive‐salience constructs related to urge regulation, motivational attitudes and alcohol expectancies, with a split‐sample approach used to validate the factor structure in a mature cohort. Structural equation modelling (SEM) employed longitudinal data from Year 5 predictors and demographic controls to examine outcomes assessed in Year 6, leveraging the developmental focus of this age range. Covariates included age, sex and socio‐economic status. EFA/CFA confirmed a robust latent structure, and SEM revealed that alcohol urge regulation significantly predicted past‐year binge drinking, while drug urge regulation was negatively associated with total drug use but had no significant effect on alcohol‐related behaviours. Alcohol expectancies and demographic factors, such as older age and male sex, were significantly associated with increased substance use, while socio‐economic status further influenced these outcomes. Findings highlight the critical role of incentive salience in youth substance use and suggest that prevention strategies should target individual risk factors and demographic influences. Early education and supportive policies may reduce early substance use and its associated harms.

Research suggests that associated changes in brain function may underlie the vulnerabilities for psychopathology following adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In addition to the ACEs themselves, the development of trauma symptoms following ACEs may also contribute to psychopathology. The present study investigates how exposure to certain ACEs, specifically child maltreatment, and trauma symptoms both individually and combined, influence the presence of psychopathology in a sample of adolescents. Participants were 52 adolescents between the ages of 12–14 years recruited from New Hanover County Health and Human Services (NHC-HHS). Further, this study seeks to identify functional brain changes with electroencephalography (EEG) that may impact psychopathology in youth. While child maltreatment and trauma symptoms were not associated, results indicated that frontal and central EEG alpha power, but not alpha asymmetry, were associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing psychopathology in adolescents, with higher alpha power reflecting lower cortical activation. The results of this study suggest that certain changes in patterns of neural activity may be candidates for psychopathology prevention in adolescents.

The current study investigated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, within-network resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC), and alcohol use during adolescence using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence study (NCANDA; N = 687). Significant rs-FC differences emerged that linked participant ACEs, PTSD symptoms, and alcohol use problems. Participants with ACEs compared to those without had diminished rs-FC within the default mode, salience, and medial frontoparietal networks (p ≤ 0.005). Further reduction in rs-FC within the default mode and medial frontoparietal networks (p ≤ 0.005) was found when PTSD symptoms were present in addition to ACEs. Findings suggest that PTSD symptoms are associated with lower within network rs-FC beyond exposure to ACEs, and some of these rs-FC changes were associated with worsened alcohol use problems (i.e. withdrawal symptoms). These findings highlight the importance of addressing PTSD symptoms in adolescents with a history of ACEs as it may mitigate problematic changes in brain connectivity and reduce the risk of developing alcohol use problems.

Background and AimsRecently, we demonstrated that a distinct pattern of structural covariance networks (SCN) from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived measurements of brain cortical thickness characterized young adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and predicted current and future problematic drinking in adolescents relative to controls. Here, we establish the robustness and value of SCN for identifying heavy alcohol users in three additional independent studies.Design and SettingCross-sectional and longitudinal studies using data from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition and Genetics (PING) study (n = 400, age range = 14-22 years), the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) (n = 272, age range = 17-22 years) and the Human Connectome Project (HCP) (n = 375, age range = 22-37 years).CasesCases were defined based on heavy alcohol use patterns or former alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnoses: 50, 68 and 61 cases were identified. Controls had none or low alcohol use or absence of AUD: 350, 204 and 314 controls were selected.MeasurementsGraph theory metrics of segregation and integration were used to summarize SCN.FindingsMirroring our prior findings, and across the three data sets, cases had a lower clustering coefficient [area under the curve (AUC) = -0.029, P = 0.002], lower modularity (AUC = -0.14, P = 0.004), lower average shortest path length (AUC = -0.078, P = 0.017) and higher global efficiency (AUC = 0.007, P = 0.010). Local efficiency differences were marginal (AUC = -0.017, P = 0.052). That is, cases exhibited lower network segregation and higher integration, suggesting that adjacent nodes (i.e. brain regions) were less similar in thickness whereas spatially distant nodes were more similar.ConclusionStructural covariance network (SCN) differences in the brain appear to constitute an early marker of heavy alcohol use in three new data sets and, more generally, demonstrate the utility of SCN-derived metrics to detect brain-related psychopathology.

Laine B. Butler, Kate B. Nooner. Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci 2023;21:419-28. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.22.1043

Background The present study examines impulsivity and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms as factors that may help understand the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent binge drinking. Methods Data were drawn from a subset of adolescents (N = 285) ages 12–22 from the National Consortium on Alcohol & Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA). Impulsivity and PTSD symptoms were each predicted to moderate the relationship between ACEs and binge drinking. Results The positive relationship between PTSD symptoms and binge drinking was stronger when impulsivity was included. The positive relationship between ACEs and binge drinking was also strengthened when accounting for PTSD symptoms. Conclusion Our results provide evidence that impulsivity and PTSD symptoms may increase the risk for binge drinking during adolescence, including following ACEs. Interventions targeting PTSD symptoms and impulsivity could be valuable tools in preventing adolescent binge drinking.