Risky alcohol use during youth: Impact on emotion, cognitive networks, and resting-state EEG activity

The identification of the risk factors of alcohol consumption in youths is crucial for early interventions focused on reducing harmful alcohol use. In our study, 82 college students (40 healthy control (CO group) and 42 with risky alcohol use (RAU group) determined by AUDIT questionnaire) between the ages of 18 and 25 years underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment covering emotional and cognitive functioning. Their resting-state activity was also recorded with an EEG for 10 min with their eyes open (EO) and 10 min with their eyes closed (EC) and analyzed using the Fitting Oscillations & One-Over-F (FOOOF) paradigm. After adjusting for sex, those in the RAU group had higher emotional dysregulation and impulsivity traits. The RAU girls presented more emotional regulation problems, such as dysregulation and negative urgency compared with the RAU boys. The RAU youths had significantly worse functioning in several cognitive domains, such as sustained attention, verbal memory, and executive functions. Cognitive network analysis revealed a different pattern of connections in each group showing that in the RAU group, the verbal memory domain had the highest connection with other cognitive functions. The EEG analyses did not reveal any significant differences between the CO and the RAU groups. However, we observed only in the EO condition that boys the from the RAU group displayed a higher theta/beta ratio than the RAU girls, whereas these differences were not observed within the CO group. Our findings highlight the need to explore more deeply the emotional, cognitive and brain changes underlying the RAU in young people.

Immersive virtual plus-maze to examine behavior and psychophysiological-related variables in young people with problematic alcohol and cannabis consumption

Stressful events appear to be risky situations that can precipitate the consumption of drugs. One way to recreate stressful contexts, in an ecological and controlled method, is through immersive virtual reality (VR). In our study, we designed the scenario of an elevated plus-maze (EPM) using VR, which is widely used in animal models to assess unconditioned anxiety. This task allowed us to analyze the behavioral, psychophysiological (heart rate and electrodermal activity), and hormonal response (salivary cortisol and Alpha-amylase) to this stressful situation in different moments (before VR task (anticipation), at the end of the task and 10 minutes later) in young people with problematic alcohol use (AU, n = 27), alcohol combined with cannabis consumption (AU + C, n = 10), as well as in a control group (CO, n = 33). Behavioral analysis revealed that the AU group displayed fewer entries into open arms than the CO group, whereas both experimental groups spent less time at the end of the open arms, as well as lower time by look down index compared to the CO group. Moreover, our VR EPM induced different psychophysiological responses in the different moments measured. In general, electrodermal activity seemed to be a good biomarker of recovery from a stressful situation, as once the exposure to the stressful situation ended, the AU + C group took longer to recover compared to the CO group. Regarding hormonal analyses, we observed a similar response pattern in all groups suggesting that our VR task was able to activate both stress systems. The alpha-amylase to cortisol ratio, proposed as a biomarker of stress systems dysregulation, was higher in the group of young participants with alcohol abuse. Interestingly, our VR EPM was able to induce a slight alcohol craving in both experimental groups. In conclusion, our results suggest certain subtle behavioral and physiological differences that could be used to detect young individuals at risk of future severe addictions or other stress-related comorbidities. Moreover, it could help us to develop prevention strategies focused on emotional, cognitive, and psychophysiological aspects.