Nayara Mota

Executive functioning and alcohol binge drinking in university students

BACKGROUND Binge drinking (BD) is prevalent among college students. Studies on alcoholism have shown that the prefrontal cortex is vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. The prefrontal cortex undergoes both structural and functional changes during adolescence and young adulthood. Sex differences have been observed in brain maturation and in alcohol-induced damage. The objective of the present study was to analyze the relationship between BD and cognitive functions subserved by the prefrontal cortex in male and female university students. METHODS The sample comprised 122 undergraduates (aged 18 to 20 years): 62 BD (30 females) and 60 non-BD (29 females). Executive functions were assessed by WMS-III (Backward Digit Span and Backward Spatial Span), SOPT (abstract designs), Letter Fluency (PMR), BADS (Zoo Map and Key Search) and WCST-3. RESULTS BD students scored lower in the Backward Digit Span Subtest and generated more perseverative responses in the SOPT In relation to interaction BD by sex, BD males scored lower in the Backward Digit Span test than BD females and non-BD males. CONCLUSIONS BD is associated with poorer performance of executive functions subserved by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The results do not support enhanced vulnerability of women to alcohol neurotoxic effects. These difficulties may reflect developmental delay or frontal lobe dysfunction.

Reduced anterior prefrontal cortex activation in young binge drinkers during a visual working memory task.

Working memory (WM) is a major cognitive function that is altered by chronic alcohol consumption. This impairment has been linked to alterations in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Animal and human studies have shown that the adolescent brain is more sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol than the adult brain, particularly those structures that mature late on in development, such as the hippocampus and prefrontal brain. The aim of the present study was to assess visual working memory and its neural correlates in young university students who partake in intermittent consumption of large amounts of alcohol (binge drinkers). A sample of 42 binge drinkers and 53 corresponding control subjects performed an identical pairs continuous performance task (IP-CPT) in a combined event-related potential (ERP) and exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) study. The results revealed that, despite adequate performance, binge drinkers showed a smaller late positive component (LPC) associated with hypoactivation of the right anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) for matching stimuli, in comparison with control subjects. These findings may reveal binge drinking-related functional alteration in recognition working memory processes and suggest that impaired prefrontal cortex function may occur at an early age in binge drinkers.

Binge drinking trajectory and neuropsychological functioning among university students: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND Adolescence is a time of considerable neurodevelopment. Binge drinking (BD) during this period increases the vulnerability to its neurotoxic effects. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the relationship between BD trajectory over university years and neuropsychological functioning. METHODS Cohort-study. Two-year follow-up. A total of 89 university students were assessed: 40 Non-BD (at Initial and Follow-up), 16 Ex-BD (BD at Initial but not at Follow-up) and 33 BD (at both times). Neuropsychological assessment of working memory, episodic memory and executive abilities was carried out during their first (Initial) and third (Follow-up) academic year at the University of Santiago de Compostela. RESULTS BD subjects performed less well on the Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III) Logical Memory Subtest (immediate theme recall, P=.034; delayed theme recall, P=.037; and percent retention, P=.035) and committed more perseverative errors on the Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT) (P=.021) than Non-BD. There were no differences between Ex-BD and Non-BD. CONCLUSIONS Binge drinking trajectory during adolescence is associated with neuropsychological performance. Persistent BD, but not Ex-BD, is associated with verbal memory and monitoring difficulties. This is compatible with the hypothesis that heavy alcohol use during adolescence may affect cognitive functions that rely on the temporomesial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Binge Drinking and Declarative Memory in University Students

BACKGROUND Binge drinking (BD), which is characterized by sporadic consumption of large quantities of alcohol in short periods, is prevalent among university students. Animal studies have shown that BD is associated with damage to the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory. The temporal cortex undergoes structural and functional changes during adolescence. The aim of the present study was to examine the association between BD and declarative memory in male and female university students. METHODS The participants were 122 students (between 18 and 20 years of age): 62 BD (30 women) and 60 non-BD (29 women). The neuropsychological assessment included the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and Weschler Memory Scale-3rd ed. (WMS-III) Logical Memory subtest, to evaluate verbal declarative memory, and the WMS-III Family Pictures subtest, to measure visual declarative memory. RESULTS The BD students remembered fewer words in the interference list and displayed greater proactive interference in the RAVLT; they performed worse in the Logical Memory subtest, both on immediate and delayed recall. There were no differences between the groups in performance of the Family Pictures subtest. No significant interactions were observed between BD and sex. CONCLUSIONS Binge drinking is associated with poorer verbal declarative memory, regardless of sex. The findings are consistent with the vulnerability of the adolescent hippocampus to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. Longitudinal studies will help determine the nature of this relationship, the neurodevelopmental trajectories for each sex, and the repercussions on academic performance.

Larger Mid-Dorsolateral Prefrontal Gray Matter Volume in Young Binge Drinkers Revealed by Voxel-Based Morphometry

Binge drinking or heavy episodic drinking is a high prevalent pattern of alcohol consumption among young people in several countries. Despite increasing evidence that binge drinking is associated with impairments in executive aspects of working memory (i.e. self-ordered working memory), processes known to depend on the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 46 and 9), less is known about the impact of binge drinking on prefrontal gray matter integrity. Here, we investigated the effects of binge drinking on gray matter volume of mid- dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in youths. We used voxel-based morphometry on the structural magnetic resonance images of subjects reporting a persistent (at least three years) binge drinking pattern of alcohol use (n = 11; age 22.43±1.03) and control subjects (n = 21; age 22.18±1.08) to measure differences in gray matter volume between both groups. In a region of interest analysis of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, after co-varying for age and gender, we observed significantly larger gray matter volume in the left mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 46 and 9) in binge drinkers in comparison with control subjects. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between left mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume and Self-Ordered Pointing Test (SOPT) total errors score in binge drinkers. The left mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume also correlated with the quantity and speed of alcohol intake. These findings indicate that a repeated exposure to alcohol −that does not meet criteria for alcohol dependence− throughout post-adolescent years and young adulthood is linked with structural anomalies in mid-dorsolateral prefrontal regions critically involved in executive aspects of working memory.

Contextualized Contribution of Kindness to Favorable Goal- and Circumstantial-Driven Neuropsychological Regulation

Kindness involves care and non-judgmental understanding toward someone. As a prosocial inclination, kindness would increase the possibility of favorable interaction with the environment, with a successful adjustment of ones response in novel or challenging circumstances, taking into account rules or goals. This adjustment ability is commonly referred to as executive functions, dependent on the prefrontal and parietal functioning, still under development during late adolescence. This study aimed to investigate if kindness would relate with the executive functions. If so, it would correlate more with measures of self-regulation, mainly dependent on the medial prefrontal corticosubcortical circuits. Also, among self-regulating processes, kindness would be more associated with autonomic responses—choices guided by ones understanding/intention - than with adaptive responses—changes on ones choices triggered by unfavorable circumstances. A sample of 46 (31 female; 18 to 21 years-old) healthy college students from the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro attended a clinical interview and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Kindness was measured by the Compassion Scale subscore. Generalized non-linear models for each neuropsychological variable were executed on R, followed by an estimation of weighted parameters for each factor. Significant models which included kindness (weighted parameter Pc > 74) and all of their psychosocial or sociodemographic factors on their maximum expression (Pc > 74) were identified. In a contextualized joint influence with other psychosocial and sociodemographic factors, kindness fits equally goal- and circumstantial- self-regulation, as well as integrative organization of information. Kindness is a principle that optimizes a refreshing and prosocial interaction with the environment. As it anticipates sharing and cooperation behaviors, it might have a primordial function on individual and social development.