Adolescent Executive Dysfunction in Daily Life: Relationships to Risks, Brain Structure and Substance Use

Abstract

During adolescence, problems reflecting cognitive, behavioral and affective dysregulation, such as inattention and emotional dyscontrol, have been observed to be associated with substance use disorder (SUD) risks and outcomes. Prior studies have typically been with small samples, and have typically not included comprehensive measurement of executive dysfunction domains. The relationships of executive dysfunction in daily life with performance based testing of cognitive skills and structural brain characteristics, thought to be the basis for executive functioning, have not been definitively determined. The aims of this study were to determine the relationships between executive dysfunction in daily life, measured by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), cognitive skills and structural brain characteristics, and SUD risks, including a global SUD risk indicator, sleep quality, and risky alcohol and cannabis use. In addition to bivariate relationships, multivariate models were tested. The subjects (n = 817; ages 12 through 21) were participants in the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study. The results indicated that executive dysfunction was significantly related to SUD risks, poor sleep quality, risky alcohol use and cannabis use, and was not significantly related to cognitive skills or structural brain characteristics. In multivariate models, the relationship between poor sleep quality and risky substance use was mediated by executive dysfunction. While these cross-sectional relationships need to be further examined in longitudinal analyses, the results suggest that poor sleep quality and executive dysfunction may be viable preventive intervention targets to reduce adolescent substance use.

Cognitive Control and Brain Network Dynamics during Word Generation Tasks Predicted Using a Novel Event-Related Deep Brain Activity Method

“…Cognitive behavior is altered, in a number of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, lowering the quality of life. Enormous effort has been addressed to eliciting underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of the affected individual [1]- [8]. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies reveal that neurophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive disorders involve disrupted large-scale brain networks, including the default mode network (DMN) consisting of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VmPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), inferior parietal lobule, and hippocampus; the salience network (SN) consisting of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insular; and the central executive network (CEN) consisting of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) [9]- [18].…”

Adolescent Executive Dysfunction and Distant Parental Relationships: Influences on Tobacco Use in Youth Under the Age of 18

“…Past studies have found significant correlations between executive dysfunction and substance use such as alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use (Pentz & Riggs, 2013;Familiar et al, 2015;Long et al, 2015;Clark et al, 2017). The results from this study indicate executive dysfunction is also significantly correlated with cigarette use, suggesting similar underlying mechanisms.…”

“…Executive functions are a wide array of behavioral and cognitive skills, which include attention, inhibition, flexibility, memory, self-monitoring, planning, and emotional control (Clark et al, 2017).…”

“…These functions are a set of higher order thought processes used to navigate through our daily environment in order to achieve goals and maximize reward opportunities (Clark et al, 2017;Schroeder EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS, RELATIONSHIPS, AND CIGARETTES & Kelley, 2010). Executive functions may serve to protect adolescents from choosing to consume a substance associated with reward seeking behaviors (Pentz & Riggs, 2013).…”

“…Attributes reflecting executive dysfunction have previously been associated with an increased risk of developing substance use disorders (Clark & Winters, 2002). Past research has found executive dysfunction to be associated with binge drinking, frequency of alcohol use, marijuana use, and risk factors for developing alcohol use disorder (Clark et al, 2017). To examine executive dysfunction, these studies (as well as the present one) have used a multidimensional comprehensive measure of executive dysfunction, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-2;(Baron, 2000;Gioia et al, 2002a,b;Guy et al, 2004;Roth et al, 2015).…”