Associations between mesolimbic connectivity, and alcohol use from adolescence to adulthood.

Dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to limbic regions play a key role in the initiation and maintenance of substance use; however, the relationship between mesolimbic resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and alcohol use during development remains unclear. We examined the associations between alcohol use and VTA RSFC to subcortical structures in 796 participants (12-21 years old at baseline, 51 % female) across 9 waves of longitudinal data from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence. Linear mixed effects models included interactions between age, sex, and alcohol use, and best fitting models were selected using log-likelihood ratio tests.

The Transition From Homogeneous to Heterogeneous Machine Learning in Neuropsychiatric Research.

Despite the advantage of neuroimaging-based machine learning (ML) models as pivotal tools for investigating brain-behavior relationships in neuropsychiatric studies, these data-driven predictive approaches have yet to yield substantial, clinically actionable insights for mental health care. A notable impediment lies in the inadequate accommodation of most ML research to the natural heterogeneity within large samples. Although commonly thought of as individual-level analyses, many ML algorithms are unimodal and homogeneous and thus incapable of capturing the potentially heterogeneous relationships between biology and psychopathology.

Patterns of depression symptoms in relation to stressors and social behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic among older youth and emerging adults in the United States.

Substantial increases in depression at the outset of the pandemic were previously reported in NCANDA, a longitudinal sample of adolescents and young adults. The current NCANDA study examined depression symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It evaluated the influence of stressors and social behavior (e.

Trauma's distinctive and combined effects on subsequent substance use, mental health, and neurocognitive functioning with the NCANDA sample.

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) contribute to increased substance use, mental health issues, and cognitive impairments. However, there's not enough research on how TBI and PTEs combined impact mental heath, substance use, and neurocognition.

Methods: This study leverages a subset of The National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) multi-site dataset with 551 adolescents to assess the combined and distinctive impacts of TBI, PTEs, and TBI+PTEs (prior to age 18) on substance use, mental health, and neurocognitive outcomes at age 18.

Multi-dimensional predictors of first drinking initiation and regular drinking onset in adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study.

Early adolescent drinking onset is linked to myriad negative consequences. Using the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) baseline to year 8 data, this study (1) leveraged best subsets selection and Cox Proportional Hazards regressions to identify the most robust predictors of adolescent first and regular drinking onset, and (2) examined the clinical utility of drinking onset in forecasting later binge drinking and withdrawal effects. Baseline predictors included youth psychodevelopmental characteristics, cognition, brain structure, family, peer, and neighborhood domains.

Identifying high school risk factors that forecast heavy drinking onset in understudied young adults.

Heavy alcohol drinking is a major, preventable problem that adversely impacts the physical and mental health of US young adults. Studies seeking drinking risk factors typically focus on young adults who enrolled in 4-year residential college programs (4YCP) even though most high school graduates join the workforce, military, or community colleges. We examined 106 of these understudied young adults (USYA) and 453 4YCPs from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) by longitudinally following their drinking patterns for 8 years from adolescence to young adulthood.

How Do Anger and Impulsivity Impact Fast-Food Consumption in Transitional Age Youth?

Introduction: Consumption of fast food has been linked to psychiatric distress, violent behaviors, and impulsivity in adolescents. The relationship between eating fast food, anger, and impulsivity has not been widely investigated. The National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence community-based cohort consists of 831 youth, half at elevated risk factors for substance use disorders during adolescence, followed annually.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Binge Drinking in Adolescence: the Role of Impulsivity and PTSD Symptoms.

Background: The present study examines impulsivity and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms as factors that may help understand the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent binge drinking.

Methods: Data were drawn from a subset of adolescents ( = 285) ages 12-22 from the National Consortium on Alcohol & Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA). Impulsivity and PTSD symptoms were each predicted to moderate the relationship between ACEs and binge drinking.

Associations between alcohol use and sex-specific maturation of subcortical gray matter morphometry from adolescence to adulthood: Replication across two longitudinal samples.

Subcortical brain morphometry matures across adolescence and young adulthood, a time when many youth engage in escalating levels of alcohol use. Initial cross-sectional studies have shown alcohol use is associated with altered subcortical morphometry. However, longitudinal evidence of sex-specific neuromaturation and associations with alcohol use remains limited.

Effects of emerging alcohol use on developmental trajectories of functional sleep measures in adolescents.

Study Objectives: Adolescence is characterized by significant brain development, accompanied by changes in sleep timing and architecture. It also is a period of profound psychosocial changes, including the initiation of alcohol use; however, it is unknown how alcohol use affects sleep architecture in the context of adolescent development. We tracked developmental changes in polysomnographic (PSG) and electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep measures and their relationship with emergent alcohol use in adolescents considering confounding effects (e.

Adolescent alcohol use is linked to disruptions in age-appropriate cortical thinning: an unsupervised machine learning approach.

Cortical thickness changes dramatically during development and is associated with adolescent drinking. However, previous findings have been inconsistent and limited by region-of-interest approaches that are underpowered because they do not conform to the underlying spatially heterogeneous effects of alcohol. In this study, adolescents (n = 657; 12-22 years at baseline) from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study who endorsed little to no alcohol use at baseline were assessed with structural magnetic resonance imaging and followed longitudinally at four yearly intervals.

Earlier Bedtime and Effective Coping Skills Predict a Return to Low-Risk of Depression in Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

To determine the persistent effects of the pandemic on mental health in young adults, we categorized depressive symptom trajectories and sought factors that promoted a reduction in depressive symptoms in high-risk individuals. Specifically, longitudinal analysis investigated changes in the risk for depression before and during the pandemic until December 2021 in 399 young adults (57% female; age range: 22.8 ± 2.

Prior test experience confounds longitudinal tracking of adolescent cognitive and motor development.

Background: Accurate measurement of trajectories in longitudinal studies, considered the gold standard method for tracking functional growth during adolescence, decline in aging, and change after head injury, is subject to confounding by testing experience.

Methods: We measured change in cognitive and motor abilities over four test sessions (baseline and three annual assessments) in 154 male and 165 female participants (baseline age 12-21 years) from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study. At each of the four test sessions, these participants were given a test battery using computerized administration and traditional pencil and paper tests that yielded accuracy and speed measures for multiple component cognitive (Abstraction, Attention, Emotion, Episodic memory, Working memory, and General Ability) and motor (Ataxia and Speed) functions.

Self-reported sleep and circadian characteristics predict alcohol and cannabis use: A longitudinal analysis of the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence Study.

Background: Growing evidence indicates that sleep characteristics predict future substance use and related problems. However, most prior studies assessed a limited range of sleep characteristics, studied a narrow age span, and included few follow-up assessments. Here, we used six annual assessments from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study, which spans adolescence and young adulthood with an accelerated longitudinal design, to examine whether multiple sleep characteristics in any year predict alcohol and cannabis use the following year.

Changes in Electroencephalography Alpha Associated With Childhood Neglect and Adolescent Alcohol Use.

The present pilot study is interested in the relationship between childhood neglect, brain function, and alcohol use in adolescence. The goal is to guide future prevention and intervention efforts related to alcohol use following childhood neglect. This pilot study comprised 53 adolescents (12-14 years at baseline) recruited from the Department of Social Services (DSS).

Did the acute impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drinking or nicotine use persist? Evidence from a cohort of emerging adults followed for up to nine years.

Objective: This study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drinking and nicotine use through June of 2021 in a community-based sample of young adults.

Method: Data were from 348 individuals (49% female) enrolled in a long-term longitudinal study with an accelerated longitudinal design: the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) Study. Individuals completed pre-pandemic assessments biannually from 2016 to early 2020, then completed up to three web-based, during-pandemic surveys in June 2020, December 2020, and June 2021.

Growth trajectories of cognitive and motor control in adolescence: How much is development and how much is practice?

Objective: Executive control continues to develop throughout adolescence and is vulnerable to alcohol use. Although longitudinal assessment is ideal for tracking executive function development and onset of alcohol use, prior testing experience must be distinguished from developmental trajectories.

Method: We used the Stroop Match-to-Sample task to examine the improvement of processing speed and specific cognitive and motor control over 4 years in 445 adolescents.

Risk for depression tripled during the COVID-19 pandemic in emerging adults followed for the last 8 years.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly increased depression rates, particularly in emerging adults. The aim of this study was to examine longitudinal changes in depression risk before and during COVID-19 in a cohort of emerging adults in the U.S.

Associations of developmental imbalance between sensation seeking and premeditation in adolescence and heavy episodic drinking in emerging adulthood.

Background: Dual systems theories suggest that greater imbalance between higher reward sensitivity and lower cognitive control across adolescence conveys risk for behaviors such as heavy episodic drinking (HED). Prior research demonstrated that psychological analogues of these systems, sensation seeking and premeditation, change from childhood through emerging adulthood, and each has been independently linked with HED. However, few studies have assessed whether change over time in these developing analogues is prospectively associated with HED.

Acceptability, Validity, and Engagement With a Mobile App for Frequent, Continuous Multiyear Assessment of Youth Health Behaviors (mNCANDA): Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Longitudinal studies of many health behaviors often rely on infrequent self-report assessments. The measurement of psychoactive substance use among youth is expected to improve with more frequent mobile assessments, which can reduce recall bias. Researchers have used mobile devices for longitudinal research, but studies that last years and assess youth continuously at a fine-grained, temporal level (eg, weekly) are rare.

Retaining Adolescent and Young Adult Participants in Research During a Pandemic: Best Practices From Two Large-Scale Developmental Neuroimaging Studies (NCANDA and ABCD).

The novel coronavirus pandemic that emerged in late 2019 (COVID-19) has created challenges not previously experienced in human research. This paper discusses two large-scale NIH-funded multi-site longitudinal studies of adolescents and young adults - the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study - and valuable approaches to learn about adaptive processes for conducting developmentally sensitive research with neuroimaging and neurocognitive testing across consortia during a global pandemic. We focus on challenges experienced during the pandemic and modifications that may guide other projects, such as implementing adapted protocols that protect the safety of participants and research staff, and addressing assessment challenges through the use of strategies such as remote and mobile assessments.

Association of Heavy Drinking With Deviant Fiber Tract Development in Frontal Brain Systems in Adolescents.

Importance: Maturation of white matter fiber systems subserves cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and motor development during adolescence. Hazardous drinking during this active neurodevelopmental period may alter the trajectory of white matter microstructural development, potentially increasing risk for developing alcohol-related dysfunction and alcohol use disorder in adulthood.

Objective: To identify disrupted adolescent microstructural brain development linked to drinking onset and to assess whether the disruption is more pronounced in younger rather than older adolescents.