| Title: | How does substance misuse affect brain networks in ageing and its relation to impulsivity and negative emotion |
| Lead Institution: | University of Cambridge |
| Principal investigator: | Dr Ying Zhao |
Application 64044
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About
Substance misuse can cause serious health issues. As an example, smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK while alcohol misuse increases the risk of serious health problems (nhs.uk, 2018). In brain imaging studies, evidence has shown the difference in brain structure, activation and connectivity between substance addiction group and the control group, which reflects the brain dysfunction of the substance addiction group. At the same time, less is known how substance misuse affects the brain health in ageing, impulsivity and negative emotion (e.g. depression and anxiety) domains. With the Biobank database available at the University of Cambridge, we aim to address how substance misuse affects the brain in the three domains mentioned. To start with, we plan to test the brain functional and/or structural network measures (e.g. brain efficiency and modularity) of the substance misuse group, and see how they are different from the control group across different age ranges. Secondly, we would like to test within the substance misuse group, what are the brain difference between people with and without impulsivity and add the years of substance misuse as covariates. Thirdly, with the affective task-based functional MRI, we plan to use independent component analysis to identify the functional networks related to emotion and then we can identify the emotion processing differences between substance misuse group and the control group. Last but not least, with the genetics data available, we plan to explore if any genes are related to the high risks of developing unhealthy brain function in the substance misuse group. The project is expected to last 36 months or longer. With this project, we hope our study can address how substance misuse affects brain health in ageing, impulsivity, and negative emotion, and therefore, can inform the biological consequences of substance misuse, help the diagnoses of depression and anxiety in the context of substance addictions, and help to develop biologically informed treatment to support these individuals.1 Publication
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12462 | Mesial Prefrontal Cortex and Alcohol Misuse: Dissociating Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Relationships in UK Biobank | Ying Zhao (+3) | 2022 | Biological Psychiatry |
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