Effects of adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure on cortical perineuronal net and parvalbumin expression in adulthood mediate behavioral inflexibility.

Background: Alcohol is commonly consumed by adolescents in a binge-like pattern, which can lead to long-lasting cognitive deficits, including reduced behavioral flexibility. We and others have determined that adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure leads to increased number of perineuronal net (PNN) numbers in brain regions that are important for behavioral flexibility. However, whether altered neurochemistry stemming from AIE exposure plays a significant role in reduced behavioral flexibility is unknown.

From learned value to sustained bias: how reward conditioning changes attentional priority.

Introduction: Attentional bias to reward-associated stimuli can occur even when it interferes with goal-driven behavior. One theory posits that dopaminergic signaling in the striatum during reward conditioning leads to changes in visual cortical and parietal representations of the stimulus used, and this, in turn, sustains attentional bias even when reward is discontinued. However, only a few studies have examined neural activity during both rewarded and unrewarded task phases.

Pathways to opioid use and implications for prevention: voices of young adults in recovery.

Background: Opioid use remains a major public health issue, especially among young adults. Despite investment in harm reduction and supply-side strategies such as reducing overprescribing and safe medication disposal, little is known about demand-side issues, such as reasons for use and pathways to opioid use. Adolescents and young adults who struggle with opioid use disorder (OUD) are multifaceted individuals with varied individual histories, experiences, challenges, skills, relationships, and lives.

Engaging youth as leaders and partners can improve substance use prevention: a call to action to support youth engagement practice and research.

Background: As a subfield of prevention science, substance use prevention researchers and professionals are increasingly focused on translating research into practice, developing the workforce of prevention specialists, and creating a robust prevention infrastructure. One critical need for professional development among the substance use prevention workforce is training and technical assistance around how to include young people in developing, implementing, and evaluating substance use prevention programs.

Main Body: Amplifying youth voices can increase the quality and responsiveness of youth prevention research and practice, as well as hasten and improve the translation of prevention interventions into practice while also benefiting youth themselves.

Engaging Youth in Substance Misuse Prevention within State Prevention Systems: Provider Perspectives.

Objective: Engaging youth in planning, developing, and implementing substance misuse prevention efforts can improve those efforts. However, specific local policies and systems constrain youth engagement practice. This study examines how to engage youth in substance misuse prevention within state prevention systems.

Inhibitory corticotropin-releasing factor neurons in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex promote stress-resilient behavior in male rodents.

Adaptive behavior in response to adverse experiences facilitates faster recovery and less time spent engaging in maladaptive behaviors that contribute to psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Dysregulation of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been implicated in these disorders, with stress further exacerbating these negative effects. Corticotropin-releasing factor is an important regulator of the stress-response system and may have a differential involvement in individuals who are especially susceptible to negative stress-related outcomes.

Social Media in Public Health: Strategies to Distill, Package, and Disseminate Public Health Research.

The worldwide expansion of users on the Internet has popularized the access of individuals to information that may not be obtained otherwise. Social media has fostered interactions between individuals and health organizations by changing the nature and speed of engagement. While it is known that many public health organizations use social media to engage their audiences, little is known about effective strategies and best practices for the dissemination of knowledge and audience engagement.

Effects of early- and mid-life stress on DNA methylation of genes associated with subclinical cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment: a systematic review.

Background: Traditional and novel risk factors cannot sufficiently explain the differential susceptibility to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Epigenetics may serve to partially explain this residual disparity, with life course stressors shown to modify methylation of genes implicated in various diseases. Subclinical CVD is often comorbid with cognitive impairment (CI), which warrants research into the identification of common genes for both conditions.