Does resting-state frontostriatal connectivity moderate relations between substance abuse vulnerability and trait impulsivity?
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Date
2022-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a major public health concern, affecting 9.9% of
American adults. Trait impulsivity, a highly heritable difference expressed as a preference for
immediate rewards, portends risk for developing SUDs over time. Functional alterations within
the frontostriatal circuit are associated with both trait impulsivity and SUDs. Thus, the current
study evaluated whether resting-state frontostriatal connectivity strength moderated the relation
between family history of substance abuse and impulsivity among young children.
Using a sample of 5566 children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development
(ABCD) Study, I conducted moderation analyses using PROCESS macro with familial drug
history as the independent variable, impulsivity, measured by the UPPS-P and CBCL scale, as
the dependent variable, and network-to-ROI connectivity correlations between the frontoparietal
network and reward processing subcortical regions as the moderators. In addition, I conducted
moderated moderations to examine whether race and sex further moderated these relations.
I found that resting-state frontostriatal connectivity did not moderate relations between
family history of SUDs and trait impulsivity and that there was no evidence of moderated
moderation effects of sex or race on this pathway. Furthermore, neither familial history of SUDs,
race, nor sex were correlated with impulsivity. These results suggest that the frontostriatal
network may not contribute to the relation between familial drug history and impulsivity.
However, limitations regarding the non-clinical sample, diagnostic validity, and
non-representative family income may explain the null findings in light of multiple replications
on associations between blunted striatal responding, trait impulsivity, and substance abuse
vulnerability.
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Keywords
Substance use disorders, Resting-state functional connectivity, Triat impulsivity, Familial history of substance abuse, Frontostriatal network