Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response to alcohol pictures predicts subsequent transition to heavy drinking in college students

• Published in: Addiction (Abingdon, England) England), 2014-04, Vol.109 (4), p.585-595
• Main Authors: Dager, Alecia D., Anderson, Beth M., Rosen, Rivkah, Khadka, Sabin, Sawyer, Broderick, Jiantonio-Kelly, Rachel E., Austad, Carol S., Raskin, Sarah A., Tennen, Howard, Wood, Rebecca M., Fallahi, Carolyn R., Pearlson, Godfrey D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol Drinking - physiopathology; Alcohol use; Alcohol-Related Disorders - physiopathology; Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholism; Alcoholism - physiopathology; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Binge Drinking - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain - physiopathology; Brain Mapping; Caudate Nucleus - physiopathology; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; College Students; cue-reactivity; Cues; development; Drinking Behavior; Drunkenness; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; fMRI; Functional Neuroimaging; Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology; Humans; imaging; Longitudinal Studies; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Photic Stimulation; Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk; Risk Factors; Students; Substance Abuse; Toxicology; United States of America; Universities; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0965-2140; 1360-0443
• DOI: 10.1111/add.12437

Background and Aims Young adults show the highest rates of escalating drinking, yet the neural risk mechanisms remain unclear. Heavy drinkers show variant functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygen level‐dependent (BOLD) response to alcohol cues, which may presage increasing drinking. In this longitudinal study, we ascertained whether BOLD response to alcohol pictures predicted subsequent heavy drinking among college students. Methods Participants were 43 18–21‐year‐olds in the United States who underwent BOLD scanning and completed monthly substance use surveys over the following year. Participants were categorized according to baseline and follow‐up drinking into 13 continuously moderate drinkers, 16 continuously heavy drinkers and 14 transitioners who drank moderately at baseline but heavily by follow‐up. During fMRI scanning at baseline, participants viewed alcohol and matched non‐alcohol beverage images. Results We observed group differences in alcohol cue‐elicited BOLD response in bilateral caudate, orbitofrontal cortex, medial frontal cortex/anterior cingulate and left insula (clusters > 2619 ml, voxelwise F(2,40) > 3.23, P