PhD Scientific Days 2022

Mental Health Sciences II. (Poster discussion will take place in the Aula during the Coffee Break)

Examining the Effects of Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms on the Relation between Neural Reward Response, Affectivity, and Substance Use in Adolescents

Text of the abstract

Adolescent substance use is associated with a host of negative consequences, including increased risk for adulthood dependence. Individual differences in reinforcement sensitivity predict substance use and this association is mediated by dispositional affectivity. Internalizing (i.e., anxiety, depression) and neurodevelopmental (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) disorder symptoms are associated with these characteristics and, in some cases, show differential relations with those; depression is associated with attenuated reward sensitivity whereas in case of anxiety and ADHD, findings are mixed. Anxiety is linked to high negative, depression to high negative and low positive affect, and ADHD is linked to high negative and high positive affect. Yet, how and whether these symptoms affect the relations between reinforcement sensitivity, affectivity, and adolescent substance use, is unknown.
Aims were to examine, in a sample of 136 adolescents (Mage= 15.32 years, SD=1.001, 63.2% boys), whether (1) (self-, parent- and teacher-reported) psychopathology symptoms are differentially associated with neural reward response and (2) symptoms moderate the indirect effect of affectivity on the association between neural reward response (indexed via whole-brain BOLD fMRI during the Doors task, pFWE-corrected<.05) and adolescent substance use.
Aim 1 findings evince the anxiety-superior frontal gyrus (SFG) (r=-.177, p=.041) association differed from parent-report ADHD hyperactivity/impulsivity (H/I)-SFG (r=.071, p=.422) and from teacher-report H/I–SFG (r=.144, p=.120) relation (zs>-2, ps<.041). The anxiety-SFG (r=-.177, p=.041) and teacher-reported ADHD inattention (IA)-SFG (r=.067, p=.472) marginally differed (z=-1.92, p=.055). The depression-putamen response to gain (r=-.116, p=.183) and the teacher-reported H/I-putamen response to gain (r=.166, p=.072) also differed (z=-2.22, p=.026). The associations of anxiety and depression with SFG or putamen response or those of H/I and IA with SFG response did not differ (ps>.05). Aim 2 results, along with clinical and conceptual implications will be presented at the conference.
This work was funded by an MTA Lendület Grant awarded to NB (#LP2018-3/2018) and the New National Excellence Programme (ÚNKP-21-3-II-SE-53) and SE250+ (EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00009) fellowships awarded to AR.