Functional connectivity in frontostriatal networks differentiate offspring of parents with substance use disorders from other high-risk youth.

BACKGROUND

Family history (FH) of substance use disorders (SUDs) is known to elevate SUD risk in offspring. However, the influence of FH SUDs has been confounded by the effect of externalizing psychopathologies in the addiction risk neuroimaging literature. Thus, the current study aimed to assess the association between parental SUDs and offspring functional connectivity in samples matched for psychopathology and demographics.

METHODS

Ninety 11-12-year-old participants with externalizing disorders were included in the study (48 FH+, 42 FH-). We conducted independent component analyses (ICA) and seed-based analyses (orbitofrontal cortex; OFC, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) with resting state data.

RESULTS

FH+ adolescents showed stronger functional connectivity between the right lateral OFC seed and anterior cingulate cortex compared to FH- adolescents (p < 0.05, corrected). Compared to FH-, FH+ adolescents showed stronger negative functional connectivity between the left lateral OFC seed and right postcentral gyrus and between the left NAcc seed and right middle occipital gyrus (p < 0.05, corrected). Poorer emotion regulation was associated with more negative connectivity between right occipital/left NAcc among FH+ adolescents based on the seed-based analysis. FH- adolescents had stronger negative functional connectivity between ventral attention/salience networks and dorsal attention/visuospatial networks in the ICA.

CONCLUSIONS

Both analytic methods found group differences in functional connectivity between brain regions associated with executive functioning and regions associated with sensory input (e.g., postcentral gyrus, occipital regions). We speculate that families densely loaded for SUD may confer risk by altered neurocircuitry that is associated with emotion regulation and valuation of external stimuli beyond what would be explained by externalizing psychopathology alone.