Children's brain activation during risky decision-making: A contributor to substance problems?

Objective: Among young children excessive externalizing behaviors often predict adolescent conduct and substance use disorders. Adolescents with those disorders show aberrant brain function when choosing between risky or cautious options. We therefore asked whether similarly aberrant brain function during risky decision-making accompanies excessive externalizing behaviors among children, hypothesizing an association between externalizing severity and regional intensity of brain activation during risky decision-making.

Imaging decision about whether to benefit self by harming others: Adolescents with conduct and substance problems, with or without callous-unemotionality, or developing typically.

We sought to identify brain activation differences in conduct-problem youth with limited prosocial emotions (LPE) compared to conduct-problem youth without LPE and community adolescents, and to test associations between brain activation and severity of callous-unemotional traits. We utilized a novel task, which asks subjects to repeatedly decide whether to accept offers where they will benefit but a beneficent other will be harmed. Behavior on this task has been previously associated with levels of prosocial emotions and severity of callous-unemotional traits, and is related to empathic concern.

Brain Cortical Thickness Differences in Adolescent Females with Substance Use Disorders.

Methods: We recruited right-handed female patients, 14-19 years of age, from a university-based treatment program for youths with substance use disorders and community controls similar for age, race and zip code of residence. We obtained 43 T1-weighted structural brain images (22 patients and 21 controls) to examine group differences in cortical thickness across the entire brain as well as six a priori regions-of-interest: 1) medial orbitofrontal cortex; 2) rostral anterior cingulate cortex; and 3) middle frontal cortex, in each hemisphere. Age and IQ were entered as nuisance factors for all analyses.

A Behavioral Measure of Costly Helping: Replicating and Extending the Association with Callous Unemotional Traits in Male Adolescents.

Background: Some conduct-disordered youths have high levels of callous unemotional traits and meet the DSM-5's "with limited prosocial emotions" (LPE) specifier. These youths often do aggressive, self-benefitting acts that cost others. We previously developed a task, the AlAn's game, which asks participants to repeatedly decide whether to accept or reject offers in which they will receive money but a planned charity donation will be reduced.

Bivariate Trajectories of Substance Use and Antisocial Behavior: Associations with Emerging Adult Outcomes in a High-Risk Sample.

Substance use and antisocial behavior are complex, interrelated behaviors. The current study identified model trajectory classes defined by concurrent substance use and antisocial behavior and examined trajectory associations with emerging adult outcomes. Participants from a high-risk sample of youth (n=536; 73% male) completed interviews at baseline (mean age= 16.

Brain cortical thickness in male adolescents with serious substance use and conduct problems.

Background: Adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD) and conduct problems exhibit high levels of impulsivity and poor self-control. Limited work to date tests for brain cortical thickness differences in these youths.

Objectives: To investigate differences in cortical thickness between adolescents with substance use and conduct problems and controls.

Adolescents' Neural Processing of Risky Decisions: Effects of Sex and Behavioral Disinhibition.

Background: Accidental injury and homicide, relatively common among adolescents, often follow risky behaviors; those are done more by boys and by adolescents with greater behavioral disinhibition (BD).

Hypothesis: Neural processing during adolescents' risky decision-making will differ in youths with greater BD severity, and in males vs. females, both before cautious behaviors and before risky behaviors.

Female adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems have substantially less brain gray matter volume.

Objective: Structural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated lower regional gray matter volume in adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems. These research studies, including ours, have generally focused on male-only or mixed-sex samples of adolescents with conduct and/or substance problems. Here we compare gray matter volume between female adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems and female healthy controls of similar ages.

Genome-Wide Association Study of Behavioral Disinhibition in a Selected Adolescent Sample.

Behavioral disinhibition (BD) is a quantitative measure designed to capture the heritable variation encompassing risky and impulsive behaviors. As a result, BD represents an ideal target for discovering genetic loci that predispose individuals to a wide range of antisocial behaviors and substance misuse that together represent a large cost to society as a whole. Published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have examined specific phenotypes that fall under the umbrella of BD (e.

Default mode network activity in male adolescents with conduct and substance use disorder.

Background: Adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) and substance use disorders (SUD) experience difficulty evaluating and regulating their behavior in anticipation of future consequences. Given the role of the brain's default mode network (DMN) in self-reflection and future thought, this study investigates whether DMN is altered in adolescents with CD and SUD, relative to controls.

Methods: Twenty adolescent males with CD and SUD and 20 male controls of similar ages underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging as they completed a risk-taking decision task.

Prevalence and predictors of injection drug use and risky sexual behaviors among adolescents in substance treatment.

Background And Objectives: The longitudinal risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection following adolescent substance treatment is not known. Therefore, it is not known if adolescent substance treatment should include HIV prevention interventions. To address this important research gap, this study evaluates the longitudinal prevalence and predictors of injection drug use (IDU) and sex risk behaviors among adolescents in substance treatment.

An overview of and rationale for changes proposed for pathological gambling in DSM-5.

The fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is scheduled for publication in 2013. It will include several changes to the diagnosis of pathological gambling: the name of the disorder will be altered, the threshold for diagnosis will decrease, and one criterion will be removed. This paper reviews the rationale for these changes and addresses how they may impact diagnosis and treatment of the disorder, as well as potential for future research in the field.

A behavioral test of accepting benefits that cost others: associations with conduct problems and callous-unemotionality.

Background: Youth with conduct problems (CP) often make decisions which value self-interest over the interests of others. Self-benefiting behavior despite loss to others is especially common among youth with CP and callous-unemotional traits (CU). Such behavioral tendencies are generally measured using self- or observer-report.

Subjective effects for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana association with cross-drug outcomes.

Methods: The cross-drug relationship of subjective experiences between alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and problem drug use behaviors were examined. Data were drawn from 3853 individuals between the ages of 11 and 30 years of age participating in the Colorado Center on Antisocial Drug Dependence [CADD]. Subjective experiences were assessed using a 13-item questionnaire that included positive and negative responses for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.

Test of association between 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor gene and conduct disorder.

Animal and human studies have implicated oxytocin in affiliative and prosocial behaviors. We tested whether genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is associated with conduct disorder (CD). Utilizing a family-based sample of adolescent probands recruited from an adolescent substance abuse treatment program, control probands and their families (total sample, n=1750), we conducted three tests of association with CD and 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the OXTR gene: (a) family-based comparison utilizing the entire sample; (b) within-Whites, case-control comparison of adolescent patients with CD and controls without CD; and (c) within-Whites case-control comparison of parents of patients and parents of controls.

Reduced cortical gray matter volume in male adolescents with substance and conduct problems.

Unlabelled: Boys with serious conduct and substance problems (Antisocial Substance Dependence (ASD)) repeatedly make impulsive and risky decisions in spite of possible negative consequences. Because prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in planning behavior in accord with prior rewards and punishments, structural abnormalities in PFC could contribute to a person's propensity to make risky decisions.

Methods: We acquired high-resolution structural images of 25 male ASD patients (ages 14-18 years) and 19 controls of similar ages using a 3T MR system.

Risky decisions and their consequences: neural processing by boys with Antisocial Substance Disorder.

Background: Adolescents with conduct and substance problems ("Antisocial Substance Disorder" (ASD)) repeatedly engage in risky antisocial and drug-using behaviors. We hypothesized that, during processing of risky decisions and resulting rewards and punishments, brain activation would differ between abstinent ASD boys and comparison boys.

Methodology/principal Findings: We compared 20 abstinent adolescent male patients in treatment for ASD with 20 community controls, examining rapid event-related blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Subjective effects to marijuana associated with marijuana use in community and clinical subjects.

Introduction: Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug among adolescents. Marijuana use induces both psychological and physiological responses, which can be interpreted by an individual in a variety of ways (i.e.

Ethnicity, body mass, and genome-wide data.

This article combines social and genetic epidemiology to examine the influence of self-reported ethnicity on body mass index (BMI) among a sample of adolescents and young adults. We use genetic information from more than 5,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in combination with principal components analysis to characterize population ancestry of individuals in this study. We show that non-Hispanic white and Mexican-American respondents differ significantly with respect to BMI and differ on the first principal component from the genetic data.

Test of association between GABRA2 (SNP rs279871) and adolescent conduct/alcohol use disorders utilizing a sample of clinic referred youth with serious substance and conduct problems, controls and available first degree relatives.

Unlabelled: Recent findings have linked the GABRA2 gene with antisocial personality disorder and alcohol dependence (AD) in adults and conduct disorder (CD), but not AD symptoms, in children and adolescents. We sought to replicate previous findings and test for an association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the GABRA2 gene (rs279871) and CD among adolescents.

Methods: Adolescent patients (n=371), 13-18 years old, were recruited from a university substance abuse treatment program.

The association between cannabinoid receptor 1 gene (CNR1) and cannabis dependence symptoms in adolescents and young adults.

Objective: This study examined the genetic association between variation in the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1) gene and cannabis dependence symptoms.

Method: Adolescent and young adult subjects were recruited from three settings: a treatment program for youth with substance use disorders, the criminal justice system, and the community. A case-control sample consisted of 224 cases who endorsed at least one dependence symptom and 108 controls who tried cannabis but endorsed no symptoms.

Transient nature of late Pleistocene climate variability.

Climate in the early Pleistocene varied with a period of 41 kyr and was related to variations in Earth's obliquity. About 900 kyr ago, variability increased and oscillated primarily at a period of approximately 100 kyr, suggesting that the link was then with the eccentricity of Earth's orbit. This transition has often been attributed to a nonlinear response to small changes in external boundary conditions.

Case-control and within-family tests for an association between conduct disorder and DAT1.

Background: Conduct disorder (CD) is characterized by a persistent pattern of violating age-appropriate norms and the rights of others, and is one of the most frequently diagnosed disorders among children. CD is moderately heritable, but we know of no reliable associations with specific genes. Evidence suggests that a variable number tandem repeat polymorphism of the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene may be associated with externalizing behavior in children.

Item response theory analysis of DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence criteria in adolescents.

Objective: To examine three aspects of adolescent cannabis problems: do DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence criteria represent two different levels of severity of substance involvement, to what degree do each of the 11 abuse and dependence criteria assess adolescent cannabis problems, and do the DSM-IV items function similarly across different adolescent populations?

Method: We examined 5,587 adolescents ages 11 to 19, including 615 youths in treatment for substance use disorders, 179 adjudicated youths, and 4,793 youths from the community. All of the subjects were assessed with a structured diagnostic interview. Item response theory was used to analyze symptom endorsement patterns.

The neuronal nicotinic receptor subunit genes (CHRNA6 and CHRNB3) are associated with subjective responses to tobacco.

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors have been implicated in various measures of nicotine dependence. In this paper, we present findings from an exploratory study of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CHRNB3 and CHRNA6 genes with tobacco and alcohol phenotypes, including frequency of use and three subjective response factors occurring shortly after initiation of use. Subjects were 1056 ethnically diverse adolescents ascertained from clinical and community settings.