(Press-News.org) Adolescence is a time of significant maturation, physically and emotionally
New findings indicate that adolescents who have a family history of alcohol abuse demonstrated significantly decreased neural activity in the frontal lobe
This could present a unique neurobiological vulnerability for adolescents at risk of developing alcohol abuse
The period known as adolescence is a significant time of change for the individual experiencing it. Some of the most significant changes that occur are located within the prefrontal cortex in the brain, which is involved in decision making, social understanding and the ability to view situations from another individual's point of view. But, adolescence is also a time where many youths begin drinking, which can have serious effects on brain development.
However, new research exploring the neural processes of adolescents with alcohol abuse in their families has indicated that a positive family history may confer a significant risk for future alcoholism.
The results will be published in the February 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Marisa Silveri, one of the authors of the study and assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and neuroscientist at the Brain Imaging Center within McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, said that the researchers examined adolescents that had not begun to drink, but possessed a positive family history of alcoholism, because it would allow them to view unique differences in brain activity when compared to the control teens.
"Altered brain function in teens who are already drinking or abusing alcohol could either be a direct result of alcohol use or could be due to a pre-existing brain difference that leads to drinking," says Silveri. "Therefore, this study sought to examine whether functional brain differences could be observed before alcohol use begins in a group of adolescents at greater risk for using alcohol, by having alcoholic parents or grandparents, compared to adolescents without alcoholism in their family."
The experiment utilized the Stroop Interference test, explained Silveri, where the subjects were required to prevent themselves from automatically reading a color word out loud, and focus instead on a less automatic response of stating the color of the ink the word was written in. For example, not reading the word red when it is written in blue ink.
Thirty-two adolescents volunteered to participate in the experiment, with 18 being denoted as family history positive (FH+), and the remaining 14 placed in the family history negative (FH-) or control group. An MRI scanner was used to collect fMRI BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) data as an indicator of activation levels within the brain during performance of the Stroop test.
The researchers discovered that the FH+ group showed higher levels of frontal lobe activation during the Stroop Interference test. These results suggest that the FH+ group had decreased neuronal efficiency, that is, in order to retain equivalent performance levels compared to controls, there was an increased need for neural recruitment during performance of a response-inhibition task (like Stroop).
"The ability to sustain adequate performance by recruiting additional brain resources suggests that their brains may have a subtle vulnerability that requires additional effort for a challenging task," says Susan F. Tapert, a professor at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and University of California San Diego Department of Psychiatry. "These results may suggest that youth with familial alcoholism have a less mature frontal system, and may be somewhat less equipped to manage real-life situations that require inhibition of impulsive responses, such as, potentially, to use alcohol or other drugs."
Silveri believes that, in addition to more research on identifying those who will be at risk of alcoholism later in life, is a much more important focus – the development and maintenance of school programs and curricula based on neuroscientific findings, which could help adolescents understand why a family history of alcoholism could put them at significantly greater risk.
INFORMATION:
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Adolescents at Risk for Alcohol Abuse Demonstrate Altered Frontal Lobe Activation during Stroop Performance," were Alexandra McCaffrey of the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, Jadwiga Rogowska of the Brain Imaging Center in Belmont and the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry in Boston, Massachusetts, and Deborah A. Yurgelun-Todd of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah Medical School in Sal Lake City, Utah. The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Charles H. Hood Foundation. This release is supported by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network at http://www.ATTCnetwork.org
END
Using antibiotics to treat newly diagnosed acute ear infections among children is modestly more effective than no treatment, but comes with a risk of side effects, according to a new study designed to help advise efforts to rewrite treatment guidelines for the common illness.
Researchers found no evidence that name-brand antibiotics work any better in general than generic antibiotics and that careful examination of the eardrum by a clinician for signs of infection is critical for accurate diagnosis of acute ear infections. The study is published in the Nov. 17 edition ...
Among the findings of an analysis of previous studies regarding ear infections in children are that results from otoscopic exams (an instrument for examining the interior of the ear) are critical to accurate diagnosis and antibiotics are modestly more effective than no treatment, with most antibiotics demonstrating similar rates of clinical success among children at normal risk, according to an article in the November 17 issue of JAMA.
Acute otitis media (AOM; middle ear infection) is the most common childhood infection for which antibiotics are prescribed in the United ...
A common transmissible strain of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been identified among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients in Canada, suggesting that cross-infection has occurred widely between CF centers in the United Kingdom and Canada, according to a study in the November 17 issue of JAMA. Infection with this strain among Canadian CF patients has been associated with an increased risk of death or lung transplantation.
There is variability in the type and timing of outcome among CF patients who are infected with P aeruginosa; some patients experience a rapid decline ...
Treatment of inoperable advanced liver cancer with the agent doxorubicin (routinely used to treat this condition) in addition to the agent sorafenib resulted in greater overall survival and progression-free survival, compared to patients who received treatment with doxorubicin alone, according to a study in the November 17 issue of JAMA.
"Hepatocellular [liver] carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide, with approximately 600,000 new cases per year. Patients with inoperable or metastatic disease have a median [midpoint] survival of only a few months. ...
Research from a six year study on migrating geese has discovered an interesting outcome – they return to the same spots they were taken to as youngsters.
The findings of the study, published online today [November 17] in the journal Molecular Ecology, suggest young light-bellied Brent geese learn their migratory destinations from parents.
This means their routes are learned through culture rather than inherited genetically, raising some interesting questions about why this species of goose demonstrates this behaviour.
Xavier Harrison, from the Centre for Ecology & ...
Heart imaging specialists at Johns Hopkins have shown that a combination of CT scans that measure how much blood is flowing through the heart and the amount of plaque in surrounding arteries are just as good as tests that are less safe, more complex and more time-consuming to detect coronary artery disease and its severity.
"Our findings should reassure cardiologists and patients that the newer, state-of-the-art CT scans are just as good as established older technologies in diagnosing the presence and severity of coronary artery disease," says cardiologist and lead study ...
Rolling back suggestions from previous studies, a Johns Hopkins study of 950 healthy men and women has shown that taking daily doses of a cholesterol-lowering statin medication to protect coronary arteries and ward off heart attack or stroke may not be needed for everyone.
In a study to be presented Nov. 16 at the American Heart Association's (AHA) annual Scientific Sessions in Chicago, the Johns Hopkins team found that nearly 95 percent of all heart attacks, strokes or heart-related deaths occurred in the half of study participants with some measureable buildup of artery-hardening ...
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. policymakers must focus more closely on developing new energy storage technologies as they consider a national renewable electricity standard, according to one of the principal recommendations in a newly released report, Integrating Renewable Electricity on the Grid, by the American Physical Society's Panel on Public Affairs (POPA). Establishing a national renewable electricity standard will help to unify the fragmented U.S. grid system—an important step in the wider adoption of using more wind and solar for energy generation.
But, without the focus ...
The types of gut bacteria that populate the guts of primates depend on the species of the host as well as where the host lives and what they eat. A study led by Howard Ochman at Yale University examines the gut microbial communities in great apes, showing that a host's species, rather than their diet, has the greatest effect on gut bacteria diversity. These findings will publish next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.
"Bacteria are crucial to human health. They enhance the immune system, protect against toxins, and assist in the maturation and renewal ...
Keeping in close contact with heart failure patients once they leave the hospital has been an ongoing challenge for physicians. A patient's condition can worsen with no notice and early intervention could potentially make a big difference.
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine thought they found the solution with a telephone call-in program designed to improve doctor-patient communication. But results from their study published in the November 16 New England Journal of Medicine shows that this program failed to improve patient outcomes. The paper will be presented simultaneously ...
