Motivational and Control Mechanisms Underlying Adolescent versus Adult Alcohol Use

Abstract

Increased motivation towards alcohol use and suboptimal behavioral control are suggested to predispose adolescents to alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Paradoxically however, most adolescent AUDs resolve over time without any formal intervention, suggesting adolescent resilience to AUDs. Importantly, studies directly comparing adolescent and adult alcohol use are largely missing. We therefore aimed to unravel the moderating role of age in the relation between alcohol use and motivational and control-related cognitive processes in 45 adolescent drinkers compared to 45 adults. We found that enhancement drinking motives and impulsivity related positively to alcohol use. Although enhancement drinking motives and impulsivity were higher in adolescents, the strength of the relation between these measures and alcohol use did not differ between age groups. None of the alcohol use-related motivational measures (i.e., craving, attentional bias, and approach bias) and behavioral control measures (i.e., interference control, risky decision making, and working-memory) were associated with alcohol use or differed between age groups. These findings support the role of impulsivity and affective sensitivity in adolescent drinking but question the moderating role of age therein. The current study contributes towards understanding the role of age in the relation between alcohol use and cognition.

The acute effects of cannabis, with and without cannabidiol, on attentional bias to cannabis related cues: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study

“…Other studies of acute cannabis intoxication comparing adults and adolescents have reported no detectable differences on a range of measures (Lawn et al 2023 ; Skumlien et al 2022 ). Similar findings have been reported between adults and adolescents (16–17 years) with alcohol use disorder, where no difference in attentional bias, craving and approach behaviour was elicited (Cousijn et al 2020 ).…”

The impact of age on olfactory alcohol cue‐reactivity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in adolescent and adult male drinkers

“…Although the attentional bias towards alcohol cues (i.e., relative automatic attentional capture and maintenance) did not differ with age (Cousijn et al, 2020;McAteer et al, 2018), adolescents showed stronger implicit alcohol-memory associations that more strongly predicted binge drinking compared with adults (Rooke & Hine, 2011). In moderate compared with light 12-to 21-year-old drinkers, normative age-related increases in superior frontal gyrus to insula connectivity were absent and amygdala to medial parietal functional synchrony was reduced (Müller-Oehring et al, 2018).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, only a handful of studies directly investigated the impact of age on the relation between alcohol use and (neuro)cognitive functioning in humans, including three behavioral studies (Cousijn et al, 2020;McAteer et al, 2018;Rooke & Hine, 2011) and one resting-state neuroimaging study (Müller-Oehring et al, 2018; for a systematic review, see Kuhns et al, 2022).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, only a handful of studies directly investigated the impact of age on the relation between alcohol use and (neuro)cognitive functioning in humans, including three behavioral studies (Cousijn et al, 2020; McAteer et al, 2018; Rooke & Hine, 2011) and one resting‐state neuroimaging study (Müller‐Oehring et al, 2018; for a systematic review, see Kuhns et al, 2022). Although the attentional bias towards alcohol cues (i.e., relative automatic attentional capture and maintenance) did not differ with age (Cousijn et al, 2020; McAteer et al, 2018), adolescents showed stronger implicit alcohol‐memory associations that more strongly predicted binge drinking compared with adults (Rooke & Hine, 2011). In moderate compared with light 12‐ to 21‐year‐old drinkers, normative age‐related increases in superior frontal gyrus to insula connectivity were absent and amygdala to medial parietal functional synchrony was reduced (Müller‐Oehring et al, 2018).…”