Reward-related ventral striatum activity links polygenic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to problematic alcohol use in young adulthood.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Problematic alcohol use in adolescence and adulthood is a common and often debilitating correlate of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Converging evidence suggests that ADHD and problematic alcohol use share a common additive genetic basis, which may be mechanistically related to reward-related brain function. In the current study, we examined whether polygenic risk for childhood ADHD is linked to problematic alcohol use in young adulthood through alterations in reward-related activity of the ventral striatum, a neural hub supporting appetitive behaviors and reinforcement learning.

Methods

Genomic, neuroimaging, and self-report data were available for 404 non-Hispanic European-American participants who completed the ongoing Duke Neurogenet

SUBMITTER: Carey CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5560771 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature