Influences of Age, Sex, and Moderate Alcohol Drinking on the Intrinsic Functional Architecture of Adolescent Brains.
The transition from adolescent to adult cognition and emotional control requires neurodevelopmental maturation likely involving intrinsic functional networks (IFNs). Normal neurodevelopment may be vulnerable to disruption from environmental insult such as alcohol consumption commonly initiated during adolescence. To test potential disruption to IFN maturation, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in 581 no-to-low alcohol-consuming and 117 moderate-to-high-drinking youth. Functional seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis assessed age, sex, and moderate alcohol drinking on default-mode, executive-control, salience, reward, and emotion networks and tested cognitive and motor coordination correlates of network connectivity. Among no-to-low alcohol-consuming adolescents, executive-control frontolimbicstriatal connectivity was stronger in older than younger adolescents, particularly boys, and predicted better ability in balance, memory, and impulse control. Connectivity patterns in moderate-to-high-drinking youth were tested mainly in late adolescence when drinking was initiated. Implicated was the emotion network with attenuated connectivity to default-mode network regions. Our cross-sectional rs-fMRI findings from this large cohort of adolescents show sexual dimorphism in connectivity and suggest neurodevelopmental rewiring toward stronger and spatially more distributed executive-control networking in older than younger adolescents. Functional network rewiring in moderate-to-high-drinking adolescents may impede maturation of affective and self-reflection systems and obscure maturation of complex social and emotional behaviors.
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.|Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Eva M
EM
Müller-Oehring
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.|Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Dongjin
D
Kwon
Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
Bonnie J
BJ
Nagel
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Edith V
EV
Sullivan
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Weiwei
W
Chu
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Torsten
T
Rohlfing
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Devin
D
Prouty
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.|Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
B Nolan
BN
Nichols
Henry H. Wheeler, Jr. Brain Imaging Center, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Poline
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
Susan F
SF
Tapert
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
Sandra A
SA
Brown
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
Kevin
K
Cummins
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
Ty
T
Brumback
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Ian M
IM
Colrain
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Fiona C
FC
Baker
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Michael D
MD
De Bellis
Department of Radiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
James T
JT
Voyvodic
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Duncan B
DB
Clark
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.|Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Adolf
A
Pfefferbaum
Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Kilian M
KM
Pohl
D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
D010100:Oxygen
alcohol; emotion; executive control; functional MRI; puberty; resting state connectivity