Age sensitive associations of adolescent substance use with amygdalar, ventral striatum, and frontal volumes in young adulthood.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

This study evaluated an age sensitive model of substance use across adolescence to determine if substance use was associated with smaller volumes for an earlier developing brain region, the amygdala, a later developing region, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the ventral striatum.

Method

Participants (N = 110) were African American young adults who were members of a longitudinal cohort across childhood and adolescence. Measures of substance use were collected across early (ages 12-15 yrs.), middle (ages 16-18 yrs.), and later (ages 19-21 yrs.) adolescence; then, at age 25, a representative subset of the sample completed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that assessed regional brain volumes.

Results

Higher levels of substance use during early adolescence, bu

SUBMITTER: Windle M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5911233 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature