Brain activation, response inhibition, and increased risk for substance use disorder

Youth at high risk for developing substance use disorders (SUDs) often exhibit differences which suggest inhibitory impairments when compared to average risk youth.

To examine the underlying neural activity related to these impairments, functional MRI (fMRI) was employed in adolescents during an antisaccade task requiring inhibition of an eye movement response. Each subject's level of neurobehavioral disinhibition (ND) was assessed using a multi-informant, multi-method approach, which has been shown to be highly predictive of SUD onset. The fMRI data was categorized into neural regions of interest according to total frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobe activation.

Results demonstrated that ND score was negatively correlated with total amount of frontal activation, but was not significantly correlated with total activation in any other neural region.

These results indicate deficits in frontal activation in youth with high amounts of ND, suggesting a possible developmental delay of executive processes in high-risk youth.