Summary: A study of almost 10,000 children found that those who started using drugs before the age of 15 had different brain structures differences from those who were peers. Many of these differences existed prior to the use of drugs, which suggests that genetic and environmental factors played a part in predisposing.
The study identified brain-wide and local architectural variations, particularly in the brain, associated with early alcohol, smoking, and cannabis use. These findings may help develop reduction strategies and versions for understanding habit, even though mental structure alone cannot identify substance use.
Important Information:
- First Onset Indicators: Children initiating material employ before 15 showed fundamental brain variations, some existing before use.
- Cortical Variations: Regional variations in cortical width and brain size were prominent, with 56 % of variant linked to texture.
- Substance-Specific Differences: Special fundamental changes were associated with the kind of material used, including alcohol, smoking, and cannabis.
Origin: NIH
A study of nearly 10,000 adolescents funded by the National Institutes of Health ( NIH)  , found that those who used substances before the age of 15 had distinct differences in their brain structures compared to those who did not.
These architectural head differences, which may be related to genetic, environmental, and other neurological factors, may contribute to the risk of substance use beginning later in life. Many of these differences first appeared in childhood before there was any use of drugs.
” This adds to some emerging information that an individual’s brain structure, alongside their special genetics, climate risks, and interactions among these elements, may affect their level of risk and resilience for substance use and addiction”, said Nora Volkow M. D., chairman of NIDA.
Understanding the complex interplay between the factors that contribute and those that protect against drug use is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies and providing support for those who may be most vulnerable.
Among the 3, 460 adolescents who initiated substances before age 15, most (90.2 % ) reported trying alcohol, with considerable overlap with nicotine and/or cannabis use, 61.5 % and 52.4 % of kids initiating nicotine and cannabis, respectively, also reported initiating alcohol.
Substance initiation was associated with a variety of brain-wide ( global ) as well as more regional structural differences primarily involving the cortex, some of which were substance-specific.
Although these data may one day aid in the development of clinical prevention strategies, the researchers stress that brain structure alone cannot predict substance use in adolescence, and that this data should not be used as a diagnostic tool.
The study, published in , JAMA Network Open, used data from the , Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study,  , ( ABCD Study ), the largest longitudinal study of brain development and health in children and adolescents in the United States, which is supported by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ) and nine other institutes, centers, and offices.
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis analyzed MRI scans taken of 9, 804 children across the United States between the ages of 9 and 11 to determine whether certain aspects of brain structure captured in the baseline MRIs were related to early substance initiation using data from the ABCD Study.
They monitored for alcohol, nicotine, and/or cannabis use, the most common substances used in early adolescence, as well as use of other illicit substances.
The researchers compared the MRIs of 3, 460 participants who reported using substances between 2016 and 2021 to those who did not ( 644 ).
They assessed both global and regional differences in brain structure, looking at measures like volume, thickness, depth of brain folds, and surface area, primarily in the brain cortex.
The cortex is the outermost layer of the brain, tightly packed with neurons and responsible for many higher-level processes, including learning, sensation, memory, language, emotion, and decision-making.
Specific traits and differences in these structures, measured by thickness, surface area, and volume, have been linked to variation in cognitive abilities and neurological conditions.
Between those who reported substance initiation before the age of 15 and those who did not, the researchers found five brain structural differences at the global level. In those who indicated substance initiation, these included greater total brain volume and greater subcortical volume.
At the regional level, there were additional 39 brain structure differences, with cortical thickness accounting for approximately 56 % of the variation. Additionally, some structural differences in the brain appeared to be unique to the type of substance being used.
The researchers discovered that many of these brain differences continued to exist even after the participants who had reported substance use beginning before their baseline MRIs were taken into account in a post-hoc analysis.
The comparison between those who did not initiate substance use and a subset of 1, 203 participants in the substance use initiation group who did not have any prior substance use experience when their MRIs were first taken was what turned out to be.
The findings of this secondary analysis challenge the idea that some of these brain structural differences may already exist prior to any use of substances, citing both the need for further investigation and the evidence that these differences could be caused by substance exposure.
The researchers note that more research is needed to understand how these structural differences may translate to differences in brain function or behaviors, even though some of the brain regions where differences were identified have been linked to sensation-seeking and impulsivity. They also emphasize that the interplay between genetics, environment, brain structure, the prenatal environment, and behavior influence affect behaviors.
This interplay is demonstrated by another recent study conducted by the University of Michigan, which found that early adolescent patterns of functional brain connectivity could influence the development of substance use in young people and that exposure to pollution was likely to have a role in these patterns.
Future research will be crucial to understand how initial brain structure differences may change as children get older and as they get older and become more or more dependent on substance use or the development of substance use disorders.
According to Alex Miller, Ph. D.,” We have a robust and large database of longitudinal data to go beyond previous neuroimaging research to understand the bidirectional relationship between brain structure and substance use.” D., the study’s corresponding author and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Indiana University.
The hope is that these kinds of studies, combined with other studies on environmental exposures and genetic risk, can influence how we think about the emergence of substance use disorders and provide more reliable models of addiction as the years go on.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text , 988 or chat at , 988lifeline. org. To learn how to get support for mental health, drug or alcohol conditions, visit FindSupport. gov. If you are ready to locate a treatment facility or provider, you can go directly to FindTreatment. gov , or call 800-662-HELP ( 4357 ).  ,
Funding: The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and ABCD Study are registered service marks and trademarks, respectively, of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About this news from neurodevelopment and addiction research
Author: NIDA Press Office
Source: NIH
Contact: NIDA Press Office – NIH
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
Alex Miller et al.,” Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Substance Use Initiation and Neuroanatomical Variability.” JAMA Network Open
Abstract
Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Substance Use Initiation and Neuroanatomical Variability
Importance
The extent of neuroanatomical variability that is linked to early substance involvement and that is linked to the development of substance use disorders poorly understood. It also remains unclear how much of the effects of substance exposure have on preexisting risk and/or consequences.
Objective
To examine neuroanatomical characteristics that are linked to early substance use and how these associations might reflect preexisting vulnerability.
Design, Setting, and Participants ,
Cohort study using data from the ongoing longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study’s baseline through three-year follow-up studies. Children aged 9 to 11 years at baseline were recruited from 22 sites across the US between June 1, 2016, and October 15, 2018. Data were analyzed between February and September 2024.
Exposures
Substance use initiation through 3-year follow-up ( ie, age <, 15 years ).
Main Outcomes and Measures ,  ,
Self-reported alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and other substance use initiation and baseline magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI ) –derived estimates of brain structure ( ie, global and regional cortical volume, thickness, surface area, sulcal depth, and subcortical volume ). Covariates included family (eg, familial relationships ), pregnancy (eg, prenatal exposure to substances ), child (eg, sex and pubertal status ), and MRI (eg, scanner model ) variables.
Results
Among 9804 children ( mean]SD] baseline age, 9.9]0.6] years, 5160 boys]52.6 % ], 213 Asian]2.2 % ], 1474 Black]15.0 % ], 514 Hispanic/Latino]5.2 % ], 29 American Indian]0.3 % ], 10 Pacific Islander]0.1 % ], 7463 White]76.1 % ], and 75 other]0.7 % ] ) with nonmissing baseline neuroimaging and covariate data, 3460 ( 35.3 % ) reported substance use initiation before age 15.
Initiation of any substance or alcohol use was associated with thinner cortex in prefrontal regions (eg, rostral middle frontal gyrus, β = −0.03, 95 % CI, −0.02 to −0.05,  , P = 6.99 × 10−6 ) but thicker cortex in all other lobes, larger globus pallidus and hippocampal volumes, as well as greater global indices of brain structure (eg, larger whole brain volume, β = 0.05, 95 % CI, 0.03 to 0.06,  , P = 2.80 × 10−8 ) following Bonferroni or false discovery rate multiple testing correction.
Cannabis use initiation was associated with lower right caudate volume ( β = −0.03, 95 % CI, −0.01 to −0.05,  , P = .002 ). Post-hoc tests that limited postbaseline initiation suggested that the majority of associations, such as those with thinner prefrontal cortex and larger whole brain volumes, occurred before initiation.
Conclusions and Relevance ,  ,
Preexisting neuroanatomical variability was linked to substance use initiation in this cohort study of children. Brain structure variability may reflect predispositional risk for initiating substance use earlier in life with potential cascading effects on later problems in addition to putative neurotoxic effects of substance exposure.
