title: Determinants of early alcohol use in healthy adolescents: the differential contribution of neuroimaging and psychological factors.
abstract: Individual variation in reward sensitivity may have an important role in early substance use and subsequent development of substance abuse. This may be especially important during adolescence, a transition period marked by approach behavior and a propensity toward risk taking, novelty seeking and alteration of the social landscape. However, little is known about the relative contribution of personality, behavior, and brain responses for prediction of alcohol use in adolescents. In this study, we applied factor analyses and structural equation modeling to reward-related brain responses assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary incentive delay task. In addition, novelty seeking, sensation seeking, impulsivity, extraversion, and behavioral measures of risk taking were entered as predictors of early onset of drinking in a sample of 14-year-old healthy adolescents (N=324). Reward-associated behavior, personality, and brain responses all contributed to alcohol intake with personality explaining a higher proportion of the variance than behavior and brain responses. When only the ventral striatum was used, a small non-significant contribution to the prediction of early alcohol use was found. These data suggest that the role of reward-related brain activation may be more important in addiction than initiation of early drinking, where personality traits and reward-related behaviors were more significant. With up to 26% of explained variance, the interrelation of reward-related personality traits, behavior, and neural response patterns may convey risk for later alcohol abuse in adolescence, and thus may be identified as a vulnerability factor for the development of substance use disorders.
authors: Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
authors: Frauke
authors: F
authors: Nees
authors: Jelka
authors: J
authors: Tzschoppe
authors: Christopher J
authors: CJ
authors: Patrick
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Vollstädt-Klein
authors: Sabina
authors: S
authors: Steiner
authors: Luise
authors: L
authors: Poustka
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Banaschewski
authors: Gareth J
authors: GJ
authors: Barker
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Büchel
authors: Patricia J
authors: PJ
authors: Conrod
authors: Hugh
authors: H
authors: Garavan
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Heinz
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Gallinat
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Lathrop
authors: Karl
authors: K
authors: Mann
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Artiges
authors: Tomas
authors: T
authors: Paus
authors: Jean-Baptiste
authors: JB
authors: Poline
authors: Trevor W
authors: TW
authors: Robbins
authors: Marcella
authors: M
authors: Rietschel
authors: Michael N
authors: MN
authors: Smolka
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Spanagel
authors: Maren
authors: M
authors: Struve
authors: Eva
authors: E
authors: Loth
authors: Gunter
authors: G
authors: Schumann
authors: Herta
authors: H
authors: Flor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012201:Reward; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking