Mental rotational skills from pre to mid-adolescence: What a novel test tells us about skill development.

Objective: This study investigates the development of mental rotation skills in male and female youth from a longitudinal study at ages 9/10 (baseline), 11/12 (Year 2), and 13/14 (Year 4) using a relatively novel task, the Little Man Task.

Method: The Little Man Task consists of four humanoid figures holding an object in either hand and rotated on two axes at 0° or 180°. Participants were prompted to indicate which of the figure's hands (left or right) was holding the object.

The Role of Ethnicity in Alcohol Screening-related Decision Making by Medical and Dental Trainees.

Objective: Chronic heavy alcohol use increases risk for developing alcohol use disorder (AUD), leading to adverse health outcomes. Evidence suggests patient demographics are used to make treatment decisions, which contributes to barriers to AUD treatment experienced by Hispanic/Latino (H/L) individuals. This study characterized the use of ethnicity in alcohol use assessment and treatment referral among medical (MT) and dental trainees (DT).

The effects of adverse life events on brain development in the ABCD study®: a propensity-weighted analysis.

Longitudinal studies of the effects of adversity on human brain development are complicated by the association of stressful events with confounding variables. To counter this bias, we apply a propensity-weighted analysis of the first two years of The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® data, employing a machine learning analysis weighted by individuals' propensity to experience adversity. Data included 338 resting-state functional connections from 7190 youth (46% female), divided into a training group (80%) and an independent testing group (20%).

The Effects of Adverse Life Events on Brain Development in the ABCD Study: A Propensity-weighted Analysis.

Longitudinal studies of the effects of adversity on human brain development are complicated by the association of stressful events with confounding variables. To counter this bias, we apply a propensity-weighted analysis of the first two years of The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study data, employing a machine learning analysis weighted by individuals' propensity to experience adversity. Data included 338 resting-state functional connections from 7190 youth (46% female), divided into a training group (80%) and an independent testing group (20%).

The effect of incidental ethanol exposures on the formation of blood phosphatidylethanol.

Blood phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a metabolite of ethanol, is emerging as a direct biomarker of choice for characterizing ethanol consumption in clinical, research, and forensic contexts. An accumulating body of evidence, and a recent international consensus conference, supports a cutoff of 20 μg/L of PEth (16:0/18:1) to distinguish abstinence from beverage ethanol consumption. There is a dearth of research, however, on whether exposures to nonbeverage ethanol sources are sufficient to produce PEth concentrations that exceed this cutoff.

Associations between smoking and pain in early recovery in residential substance use treatment-seekers.

Introduction: A growing literature indicates bidirectional associations between pain and tobacco use. Cigarette smokers are at increased risk for chronic pain, and observational and experimental studies indicate that pain increases motivation to smoke. Tobacco use disorder frequently co-occurs with other substance use disorders, which are also associated with chronic pain vulnerability.

Pain Predicts Dropout From Substance Use Treatment.

Objective: This project aimed to characterize the relationship between physical pain experienced at time of entry to residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) and the frequency of treatment dropout. We hypothesized that both endorsement of recent pain and higher magnitude of endorsed pain intensity would be associated with higher dropout rates. We further hypothesized that these effects would be exacerbated among patients with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Urine and hair drug test results associated with daily consumption of codeine-predominant poppy seed food products.

This study examined the urine and hair opiate profiles associated with the daily consumption of presumptive codeine-predominant poppy seed food products. Ten participants consumed one of five food products at breakfast for 10 consecutive days. Baseline urine and hair samples were collected on Day 1.

Substance familiarity in middle childhood and adolescent substance use.

Background: Childhood familiarity with (knowledge of) substances is a potentially important, currently understudied adolescent substance use risk factor. We aimed to describe changes in childhood familiarity with substances and to test whether baseline familiarity predicts early adolescent substance use.

Methods: Utilizing the Substance Use Module of the longitudinal cohort study, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD; US youth aged 9-10 years followed for 10 years) through Data Release 4 (n=7896; individuals who completed all six assessments in the first three years), we conducted longitudinal mixed models and survival analyses to describe changes in familiarity and to determine the adjusted odds of substance use by age 13 based on number of familiar substances at baseline.

Co-occurring pain and addiction: prognostic implications for healthcare professionals in residential treatment for substance use disorder.

: Chronic pain is both an important antecedent and consequence of substance use. Although evidence suggests healthcare professionals may be uniquely vulnerable to chronic pain, this vulnerability remains largely unexamined in the context of recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs). We characterized pain in a sample of treatment-seeking individuals, examined potential differences in pain trajectories between healthcare professionals and non-healthcare patients, and interrogated potential pain-related vulnerabilities in treatment outcomes between these groups.

Women's use of alcohol: Neurobiobehavioral concomitants and consequences.

In this narrative review, we draw from historical and contemporary literature to explore the impact of alcohol consumption on brain and behavior among women. We examine three domains: 1) the impact of alcohol use disorder (AUD) on neurobiobehavioral outcomes, 2) its impact on social cognition/emotion processing, and 3) alcohol's acute effects in older women. There is compelling evidence of alcohol-related compromise in neuropsychological function, neural activation, and brain structure.

Longitudinal associations between pain and substance use disorder treatment outcomes.

Introduction: Pain is commonly reported among those in treatment for substance use disorders (SUD) and is associated with poorer SUD treatment outcomes. The current study examined the trajectory of pain over the course of SUD treatment and associations with substance use outcomes.

Methods: This observational study included adults seeking treatment for alcohol, cannabis, or opioid use disorders (N = 811).

Age as a potential modulator of alcohol-related deficits.

Although their individual significance is well-documented, the interaction effects of age, sex, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) have undergone little systematic investigation. Here, we extend prior work interrogating sex and group (AUD vs. community comparison [CC]) by probing the main and interaction effects of age on emotion processes as well as two conventional neuropsychological tests.

Cognitive training in recently-abstinent individuals with alcohol use disorder improves emotional stroop performance: Evidence from a randomized pilot trial.

Background: Cognitive training interventions appear capable of improving alcohol-associated neurobehavioral deficits in recently detoxified individuals. However, efficacy remains incompletely characterized in alcohol use disorder (AUD) and available data address only non-affective cognitive outcomes; enhancement of social cognition remains uninvestigated. We utilized a training paradigm in which successfully ignoring emotionally-valent stimuli benefitted task performance.

Racially invariant stimuli may bias outcomes in assessment of emotion processing.

Objective: Difficulties identifying emotional facial expressions are commonly observed in alcohol use disorder (AUD). Critically, this work utilizes single-race stimulus sets, although study samples are not similarly constrained. This is particularly concerning given evidence among community samples showing the impact of racial incongruity, giving rise to interpretative caveats.

Transforming fire management in northern Australia through successful implementation of savanna burning emissions reductions projects.

Savannas are the most fire-prone of Earth's biomes and currently account for most global burned area and associated carbon emissions. In Australia, over recent decades substantial development of savanna burning emissions accounting methods has been undertaken to incentivise more conservative savanna fire management and reduce the extent and severity of late dry season wildfires. Since inception of Australia's formal regulated savanna burning market in 2012, today 25% of the 1.

Brain Structure and Function in Recovery.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) commonly is associated with compromise in neurobiological and/or neurobehavioral processes. The severity of this compromise varies across individuals and outcomes, as does the degree to which recovery of function is achieved. This narrative review first summarizes neurobehavioral, neurophysiological, structural, and neurochemical aberrations/deficits that are frequently observed in people with AUD after detoxification.

The impact of emotional face stimuli on working memory performance among men and women with alcohol use disorder.

Background: Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) often display compromise in emotional processing and non-affective neurocognitive functions. However, relatively little empirical work explores their intersection. In this study, we examined working memory performance when attending to and ignoring facial stimuli among adults with and without AUD.

Blood Phosphatidylethanol Concentrations Following Regular Exposure to an Alcohol-Based Mouthwash.

Direct biomarkers of ethanol are used to monitor individuals who are required to abstain from ethanol consumption. In recent years, blood phosphatidylethanol (PEth) has gained acceptance in clinical and forensic contexts as an abstinence marker. Its elimination half-life of several days provides a window of detection of days to weeks.

Exploring differences between self-report and electrophysiological indices of drowsy driving: A usability examination of a personal brain-computer interface device.

Introduction: Impaired driving has resulted in numerous accidents, fatalities, and costly damage. One particularly concerning type of impairment is driver drowsiness. Despite advancements, modern vehicle safety systems remain ineffective at keeping drowsy drivers alert and aware of their state, even temporarily.

Building an Open Resources Repository for COVID-19 Research.

The COVID-19 outbreak is a global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization, with rapidly increasing cases in most countries. A wide range of research is urgently needed for understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, such as transmissibility, geographic spreading, risk factors for infections, and economic impacts. Reliable data archive and sharing are essential to jump-start innovative research to combat COVID-19.