Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2011 Feb;35(2):218-28. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01337.x. Epub 2010 Nov 12.
Children and adolescents, family history positive (FH+) for alcoholism, exhibit differences in brain structure and functional activation when compared to family history negative (FH-) counterparts. Given that frontal brain regions, and associated reciprocal connections with limbic structures, undergo the most dramatic maturational changes during adolescence, the objective of this study was to compare functional brain activation during a frontally mediated test of response inhibition in 32 adolescents separated into low-risk (FH-) and high-risk (FH+) groups.
Functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) blood oxygen level-dependent data were acquired at 1.5 Tesla during performance of Stroop Color Naming, Word Reading, and Interference. Preprocessing and statistical analyses, covaried for age, were conducted in SPM99 using a search territory that included superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri (trigone region), anterior cingulate gyrus (CG), and left and right amygdala.
Significantly greater activation in the fronto-limbic search territory was observed in FH+ relative to FH- subjects during Stroop Interference. In addition, a significant regression between brain activation and family history density was observed, with a greater density being associated with increased activation in regions including middle frontal gyrus (BA9) and CG (BA24).
These data demonstrate a significant influence of FH status on brain activation during the performance of a response inhibition task, perhaps reflecting a neurobiological vulnerability associated with FH status that may include reduced neuronal efficiency and/or recruitment of additional neuronal resources. These findings are important given that the adolescent developmental period is already associated with reduced inhibitory capacity, even prior to the onset of alcohol use.
与家族史阴性（FH-）相比，儿童和青少年的家族史阳性（FH+）在大脑结构和功能激活方面存在差异。鉴于额叶脑区及其与边缘结构的相互连接在青春期经历了最显著的成熟变化，本研究的目的是比较 32 名青少年在进行额叶介导的反应抑制测试时的大脑功能激活情况，这些青少年分为低风险（FH-）和高风险（FH+）组。
在 1.5T 磁共振扫描仪上采集血氧水平依赖功能磁共振（fMRI）数据，用于执行 Stroop 颜色命名、单词阅读和干扰任务。使用 SPM99 进行预处理和统计分析，协变量为年龄，搜索区域包括额上、中、下回（三角区）、前扣带回（CG）和左右杏仁核。
在 Stroop 干扰任务中，FH+组相对于 FH-组，在额-边缘搜索区域观察到显著更大的激活。此外，观察到大脑激活与家族史密度之间存在显著的回归关系，密度越大，与中额回（BA9）和 CG（BA24）等区域的激活增加相关。
这些数据表明 FH 状态对反应抑制任务执行期间的大脑激活有显著影响，这可能反映了与 FH 状态相关的神经生物学脆弱性，包括神经元效率降低和/或额外神经元资源的招募。这些发现很重要，因为即使在酒精使用开始之前，青少年发育期间的抑制能力已经降低。
