title: Neural activation during risky decision-making in youth at high risk for substance use disorders.
abstract: Risky decision-making, particularly in the context of reward-seeking behavior, is strongly associated with the presence of substance use disorders (SUDs). However, there has been little research on the neural substrates underlying reward-related decision-making in drug-naïve youth who are at elevated risk for SUDs. Participants comprised 23 high-risk (HR) youth with a well-established SUD risk phenotype and 27 low-risk healthy comparison (HC) youth, aged 10-14. Participants completed the balloon analog risk task (BART), a task designed to examine risky decision-making, during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The HR group had faster reaction times, but otherwise showed no behavioral differences from the HC group. HR youth experienced greater activation when processing outcome, as the chances of balloon explosion increased, relative to HC youth, in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). As explosion probability increased, group-by-condition interactions in the ventral striatum/anterior cingulate and the anterior insula showed increasing activation in HR youth, specifically on trials when explosions occurred. Thus, atypical activation increased with increasing risk of negative outcome (i.e., balloon explosion) in a cortico-striatal network in the HR group. These findings identify candidate neurobiological markers of addiction risk in youth at high familial and phenotypic risk for SUDs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA. Electronic address: lhulvers@iupui.edu.
authors.forename: Leslie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Hulvershorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Tom A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Hummer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Rena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fukunaga
authors.affiliation: Section on Bipolar Spectrum Disorders, Intramural Research Program, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Finn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Cyders
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Health, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anand
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Overhage
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Allyson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dir
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012201:Reward; D012306:Risk; D012309:Risk-Taking; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: Addiction risk; Adolescent; Decision-making; Functional imaging; Prefrontal cortex; Risk