Abstract
Imbalance models of adolescent brain development attribute the increasing engagement in substance use during adolescence to within-person changes in the functional balance between the neural systems underlying socio-emotional, incentive processing, and cognitive control. However, the experimental designs and analytic techniques used to date do not lend themselves to explicit tests of how within-person change and within-person variability in socio-emotional processing and cognitive control place individual adolescents at risk for substance use. For a more complete articulation and a more stringent test of these models, we highlight the promise and challenges of using intensive longitudinal designs and analysis techniques that encompass many (often >10) within-person measurement occasions. Use of intensive longitudinal designs will lend researchers the tools required to make within-person inferences in individual adolescents that will ultimately align imbalance models of adolescent substance use with the methodological frameworks used to test them.
Highlights
The experimental designs and analytic techniques used to date do not lend themselves to explicit tests of how within-person change and within-person variability in socio-emotional processing and cognitive control place individual adolescents at risk for substance use
From the perspective of imbalance models of risk-taking (Casey and Jones, 2010; Lydon et al, 2015), adolescents are vulnerable to drug use due to normative increases in the activity of limbic and paralimbic regions involved in socio-emotional processes such as incentive processing (Ernst et al, 2005; Galvan et al, 2006) alongside continued immaturities in the functioning of prefrontal regions involved in cognitive control (Hwang et al, 2010; Ordaz et al, 2013)
Empirical studies of imbalance models of adolescent substance use have been the subject of numerous reviews (Richards et al, 2013; Smith et al, 2013; Lydon et al, 2014; Bjork and Pardini, 2015), which collectively indicate that drug use is associated with between-person differences in traits, behaviors, and neurobiological features associated with the functioning of the socio-emotional and cognitive control systems
Summary
Empirical studies of imbalance models of adolescent substance use have been the subject of numerous reviews (Richards et al, 2013; Smith et al, 2013; Lydon et al, 2014; Bjork and Pardini, 2015), which collectively indicate that drug use is associated with between-person differences in traits, behaviors, and neurobiological features associated with the functioning of the socio-emotional and cognitive control systems. The designs and analytic techniques used to date, are limited in the extent to which they can appropriately test the within-person mechanisms proposed by imbalance models. We offer an overview of this mismatch between propositions of imbalance models and the methods used to test them, followed by a discussion of potential future advancements through the use of intensive longitudinal designs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
