Abstract
Background Subclinical adolescent alcohol use is highly prevalent and may have deleterious effects on important psychosocial and brain outcomes. Prior research has focused on identifying endophenotypes of pathological drinking, and the predictors of normative drinking remain understudied. This study investigated the incremental predictive value of two potential psychophysiological endophenotypes, P3 amplitude (an index of decision making) and midfrontal theta power (a correlate of attentional control), for prospectively predicting the expression and initiation of alcohol use emerging in adolescence. Methods A large (N = 594) epidemiological sample was prospectively assessed at ages 11/14/17. Alcohol/substance use was assessed at all ages via a computerized self-report inventory. EEG was recorded at age-14 during a visual oddball task to elicit P3 and theta. Results Reduced target-related P3 and theta at age-14 prospectively predicted drinking at age-17 independent of one another. Among alcohol-naive individuals at age-14, attenuated P3 and theta increased the odds of new-onset alcohol behaviors 3 years later. Importantly, the endophenotypes provided significant incremental predictive power of future non-clinical alcohol use beyond relevant risk factors (prior alcohol use; tobacco/illicit drug initiation; parental alcohol use disorder). Conclusions The current report is the first of our knowledge to demonstrate that deviations in parietal P3 and midfrontal theta prospectively predict the emergence of normative/non-pathological drinking. P3 and theta provide modest yet significant explanatory variance beyond prominent self-report and familial risk measures. Findings offer strong evidence supporting the predictive utility of P3 and theta as candidate endophenotypes for adolescent drinking.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 416-425 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Psychological medicine |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Financial support. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants DA013240 and DA036216. J.H. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 00039202 and the University of Minnesota Eva O. Miller Fellowship. Preliminary findings related to this manuscript appeared in a poster presentation at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (October 2018).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019.
Keywords
- Adolescent alcohol use
- EEG/ERP
- P3
- endophenotype
- longitudinal design
- theta