Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Jun;55:101111. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101111. Epub 2022 Apr 16.
Hedonic dysregulation is evident in addiction and substance use disorders, but it is not clearly understood how hedonic processes may interact with brain development related to cognitive control to influence risky decision making and substance use during adolescence. The present study used prospective longitudinal data to clarify the role of cognitive control in the link between hedonic experiences and the development of substance use during adolescence. Participants included 167 adolescents (53% male) assessed at four time points, annually. Adolescents participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session where blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response was monitored during the Multi-Source- Interference Task to assess cognitive control. Substance use and hedonia were assessed using self-report. A two-group growth curve model of substance use with hedonia as a time-varying covariate indicated that higher levels of hedonia predicted higher substance use, but only in adolescents with higher activation in the frontoparietal regions and in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex during cognitive control. Results elucidate the moderating effects of neural cognitive control on associations between hedonia and adolescent substance use, suggesting that lower cognitive control functioning in the brain may exacerbate risk for substance use promoted by hedonia.
享乐失调在成瘾和物质使用障碍中很明显，但目前尚不清楚享乐过程如何与与认知控制相关的大脑发育相互作用，从而影响青少年时期的冒险决策和物质使用。本研究使用前瞻性纵向数据来阐明认知控制在享乐体验与青少年时期物质使用发展之间的联系中的作用。参与者包括在四个时间点（每年一次）评估的 167 名青少年（53%为男性）。青少年参加了功能磁共振成像（fMRI）会议，在多源干扰任务期间监测血氧水平依赖性（BOLD）反应，以评估认知控制。使用自我报告评估物质使用和享乐。带有享乐作为时变协变量的物质使用的两群组增长曲线模型表明，较高的享乐水平预示着较高的物质使用，但仅在认知控制过程中前额顶叶区域和前扣带皮质的激活较高的青少年中才如此。研究结果阐明了神经认知控制对享乐与青少年物质使用之间关联的调节作用，表明大脑中较低的认知控制功能可能会加剧享乐所带来的物质使用风险。
