fMRI investigation of response inhibition, emotion, impulsivity, and clinical high-risk behavior in adolescents.
High-risk behavior in adolescents is associated with injury, mental health problems, and poor outcomes in later life. Improved understanding of the neurobiology of high-risk behavior and impulsivity shows promise for informing clinical treatment and prevention as well as policy to better address high-risk behavior. We recruited 21 adolescents (age 14-17) with a wide range of high-risk behavior tendencies, including medically high-risk participants recruited from psychiatric clinics. Risk tendencies were assessed using the Adolescent Risk Behavior Screen (ARBS). ARBS risk scores correlated highly (0.78) with impulsivity scores from the Barratt Impulsivity scale (BIS). Participants underwent 4.7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotional Go/NoGo task. This task presented an aversive or neutral distractor image simultaneously with each Go or NoGo stimulus. Risk behavior and impulsivity tendencies exhibited similar but not identical associations with fMRI activation patterns in prefrontal brain regions. We interpret these results as reflecting differences in response inhibition, emotional stimulus processing, and emotion regulation in relation to participant risk behavior tendencies and impulsivity levels. The results are consistent with high impulsivity playing an important role in determining high risk tendencies in this sample containing clinically high-risk adolescents.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada ; Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Matthew R G
MR
Brown
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
James R A
JR
Benoit
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Michal
M
Juhás
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Ericson
E
Dametto
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Tiffanie T
TT
Tse
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Marnie
M
MacKay
Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Bhaskar
B
Sen
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Alan M
AM
Carroll
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Oleksandr
O
Hodlevskyy
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Peter H
PH
Silverstone
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada ; Psychology Department, Neuroscience Program, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, USA.
Florin
F
Dolcos
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Serdar M
SM
Dursun
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Andrew J
AJ
Greenshaw
ARBS; adolescent; emotional Go/NoGo; high-risk behavior; impulsivity; response inhibition