Differential dysfunctions related to alcohol and cannabis use disorder symptoms in reward and error-processing neuro-circuitries in adolescents

Abstract

Alcohol and cannabis are two of the most commonly used substances by adolescents and are associated with adverse medical and psychiatric outcomes. These adverse psychiatric outcomes may reflect the negative impact of alcohol and/or cannabis abuse on neural systems mediating reward and/or error detection. However, work indicative of this has mostly been conducted in adults with Alcohol and/or Cannabis Use Disorder (i.e., AUD and CUD), with relatively little work in adolescent patients. Furthermore, of the work that has been conducted in adolescents, groups were based on categorical diagnoses of AUD and/or CUD, so the relationship between AUD and/or CUD symptom severity in adolescents and neural dysfunction is unclear. We used a Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task to examine the relationship between AUDIT and/or CUDIT scores and functional integrity of neuro-circuitries mediating reward processing and error detection within 150 adolescents. Our findings indicate that AUDIT score is negatively related to activity in reward processing neuro-circuitry in adolescents. However, CUDIT score is negatively related to activity in brain regions involved in error detection. Each of these relationships reflected a medium effect size (Partial-η2 0.09–0.14). These data suggest differential impacts of AUD and CUD on reward versus error detection neuro-circuitries within the adolescent brain.

Individual associations of adolescent alcohol use disorder versus cannabis use disorder symptoms in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty

“…Adults and adolescents with SUDs show poor performance on decision-making tasks ( Gilman et al, 2012 ; Paulus et al, 2003 ; Schutter et al, 2011 ; Whitlow et al, 2004 ), which may reflect alterations in reinforcement processing (i.e., processes underlying the encoding of positive or negative feedback and/or revising future EV’s following a response to a given stimulus). Work has demonstrated that increased AUD symptoms are associated with reduced striatal responsiveness to non-drug rewards in the context of task-directed paradigms such as the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task in adults and adolescents ( Aloi et al, 2019 ; Beck et al, 2009 ; Claus et al, 2017 ; Wrase et al, 2007 ). Less work has examined reinforcement processing in the context of instrumental learning.…”

“…While the majority of the literature to date examines AUD and CUD individually ( Beck et al, 2009 ; Jager et al, 2013 ; Martz et al, 2016 ; Nees et al, 2015 ), emerging data indicates that there are differences in individual associations of AUD and CUD symptomatology levels to neuro-cognitive alterations ( Aloi et al, 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 ; Blair et al, 2019 ; Leiker et al, 2019 ). More specifically, prior work has shown that AUD symptomatology level is negatively associated with recruitment of regions implicated in top-down attentional and reward processes ( Aloi et al, 2020 , 2019 , 2018 ). CUD symptomatology level is negatively associated with recruitment of regions implicated in emotional responding ( Aloi et al, 2021 ; Blair et al, 2019 ; Leiker et al, 2019 ).…”

Alcohol use disorder and cannabis use disorder symptomatology in adolescents is associated with dysfunction in neural processing of future events

“…Although AUD and CUD are highly comorbid in adolescent populations, 24 recent work has begun to delineate differences in the functional impairments associated with each within adolescents. For example, differential associations between AUD versus CUD symptoms in adolescents have been reported with respect to the functional integrity of neural systems engaged in reward processing, 25 executive attention, 26 and emotional responsiveness. 27 In the current study, we used a version of a comparative optimism (CO) task, developed by our group, 28,29 to examine the relationship between AUD and/or CUD symptomatology and affect-based neural representation of future events in an adolescent population.…”

“…Although AUD and CUD are highly comorbid in adolescent populations, 24 recent work has begun to delineate differences in the functional impairments associated with each within adolescents. For example, differential associations between AUD versus CUD symptoms in adolescents have been reported with respect to the functional integrity of neural systems engaged in reward processing, 25 executive attention, 26 and emotional responsiveness 27 …”

Adolescent Substance Use and the Brain: Behavioral, Cognitive and Neuroimaging Correlates

“…Adolescent binge drinking may also alter neural activity during reward processing, with Aloi et al ( 2019 ) showing a cross-sectional association between AUD symptom severity and reduced activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and the striatum. Furthermore, among adolescents who were alcohol-naïve at baseline, those who transitioned into binge drinking after a two-year follow-up period exhibited reduced activity in the left cerebellum compared to controls during reward processing (Cservenka et al, 2015 ).…”