Increased forebrain activations in youths with family histories of alcohol and other substance use disorders performing a Go/NoGo task

Abstract

Background: Youths with a family history of alcohol and other drug use disorders (FH+) are at a greater risk of developing substance use disorders than their peers with no such family histories (FH-), and this increased risk may be related to impaired maturation of forebrain circuitry. FH+ individuals have shown altered forebrain activity at rest and while performing cognitive tasks. However, it is not fully understood how forebrain activity is altered in FH+ individuals, and ultimately how these alterations may contribute to substance use disorder risk.

Methods: In this study, we tested 72 FH+ and 32 FH- youths performing a go/no-go task and examined activations in blocks with only go trials (Go Only), blocks with 50% go and 50% no-go trials (Go/NoGo), and a contrast of those 2 blocks.

Results: FH+ youths had significantly greater cerebral activations in both the Go and Go/NoGo blocks than FH- youths in regions including the posterior cingulate/precuneus, bilateral middle/superior temporal gyrus, and medial superior frontal gyrus with no significant group differences in the subtraction between Go Only and Go/NoGo blocks. Additionally, FH+ youths had moderately slower reaction times on go trials in the Go Only blocks.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that global activation increase in FH+ youths are modulated by FH density and are not specific to the inhibitory components of the task. This pattern of increased activations in FH+ youths may be at least partially due to impaired forebrain white matter development leading to greater activations/less efficient neural communication during task performance.

Keywords: Family History; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Go/No-Go; Risk; Substance Use.

Figure 1

Go/NoGo blocks minus Go Only blocks for both groups. Red: FH−; Green: FH+; Yellow: Both groups. Cluster-level FWE corrected p <0.05.

Figure 2

FH+ versus FH− in Go Only blocks minus baseline contrast. FH+ youths had greater activations in the Go Only blocks in the posterior cingulate/precuneus (BA 5/31), bilateral middle/superior temporal gyrus (BA 22), medial superior frontal gyrus (BA 8), left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), bilateral striatum, and medial parietal lobe/precuneus (BA 7), see Table 3. Cluster-level FWE corrected p <0.05.

Figure 3

FH+ versus FH− in Go/NoGo blocks minus baseline contrast. FH+ youths had greater activations in the Go/NoGo blocks in the posterior cingulate/precuneus (BA 31), bilateral middle/superior temporal gyrus (BA 21/22), medial superior frontal gyrus (BA 8), left parietal lobe/angular gyrus (BA 39/40), and rostral anterior cingulate (BA 32), see Table 4. Cluster-level FWE corrected p <0.05.