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Principal Investigator: Peter J. Syapin
Co-Principal Investigators: Alice M. Young, Susan E. Bergeson, Gregory W. Schrimsher
Co-Investigator: Marianne Evola
The overarching hypothesis addressed in this work is that age of onset of binge drinking and trait behavioral reactivity will predict current decisional and response impulsivity, executive function performance, and working memory ability. It is postulated that adolescent onset of binge drinking and high trait behavioral reactivity will each predict lower performance on tests ofdecisional and response impulsivity, executive functioning, and working memory ability. Moreover, it is postulated that the cumulative impact of adolescent onset of binge exposure and behavioral reactivity will be synergistic. Secondary hypotheses predict that unique transcription factor usage, pathway over-representation and chromosome localization of gene expression in brain underlie the molecular mechanistic differences in age-of-onset specific impairment. Five aims will test these hypotheses.
Specific Aims
Aim 1: To quantify the relation between binge ethanol exposure and subsequent cognitive functioning and response / decisional impulsivity in young adult rats.
Aim 2: To determine if adolescent versus young adult onset of binge drinking produces greater impact on cognitive functioning and response / decisional impulsivity.
Aim 3: To assess gender differences in the impact of binge alcohol use on cognitive functioning and response / decisional impulsivity.
Aim 4: To determine if baseline (i.e., trait) levels of behavioral reactivity interact with binge alcohol exposure to produce poorer performance in later tests of cognitive functioning and of behavioral response / decisional impulsivity.
Aim 5:To determine the acute and long-term effects of adolescent versus young adult onset of binge drinking on brain gene expression in the prefrontal, orbitofrontal, and hippocampal cortical regions.
The long term goal of this research program is to better understand the biological pathways involved in binge alcohol consumption and impulsivity and their joint impact on the cognitive foundations of decision making in young adults. Such understanding will help protect, support and advance the health and wellbeing of both military and civilian personnel through development of informed strategies to ameliorate the near- and long-term effects of binge alcohol exposure on impulsive behaviorandcognitive performance.