Background Brain abnormalities in adolescent heavy drinkers may result from alcohol exposure, or stem from pre-existing neural features. Method This longitudinal morphometric study investigated 40 healthy adolescents, ages 12–17 at study entry, half of whom (n=20) initiated heavy drinking over the 3 year follow-up. Both assessments included high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. FreeSurfer was used to segment brain volumes, which were measured longitudinally using the newly developed QUARC tool. Results At baseline, participants who later transitioned into heavy drinking showed smaller left cingulate, pars triangularis, and rostral anterior cingulate volume, and less right cerebellar white matter volumes (p<.05), compared to continuous non-using teens. Over time, participants who initiated heavy drinking showed significantly greater volume reduction in the left ventral diencephalon, left inferior and middle temporal gyrus, and left caudate and brain stem, compared to substance-naïve youth (p<.05). Conclusion Findings suggest preexisting volume differences in frontal brain regions in future drinkers and greater brain volume reduction in subcortical and temporal regions after alcohol use was initiated. This is consistent with literature showing pre-existing cognitive deficits on tasks recruited by frontal regions, as well as post-drinking consequences on brain regions involved in language and spatial tasks.

Delineating the association of age and cortical thickness in healthy individuals is critical given the association of cortical thickness with cognition and behavior. Previous research has shown that robust estimates of the association between age and brain morphometry require large-scale studies. In response, we used cross-sectional data

Total gray matter volume is associated with general cognitive ability (GCA), an association mediated by genetic factors. It is expectable that total neocortical volume should be similarly associated with GCA. Neocortical volume is the product of thickness and surface area, but global thickness and surface area are unrelated phenotypically and genetically in humans. The nature of the genetic association between GCA and either of these 2 cortical dimensions has not been examined. Humans possess greater cognitive capacity than other species, and surface area increases appear to be the primary driver of the increased size of the human cortex. Thus, we expected neocortical surface area to be more strongly associated with cognition than thickness. Using multivariate genetic analysis in 515 middle-aged twins, we demonstrated that both the phenotypic and genetic associations between neocortical volume and GCA are driven primarily by surface area rather than thickness. Results were generally similar for each of 4 specific cognitive abilities that comprised the GCA measure. Our results suggest that emphasis on neocortical surface area, rather than thickness, could be more fruitful for elucidating neocortical-GCA associations and identifying specific genes underlying those associations.

Most studies examining associations between hypertension and brain white matter microstructure have focused on older adults or on cohorts with a large age range. Since hypertension effects on the brain may vary with age it is important to focus on middle age, when hypertension becomes more prevalent. We used linear mixed effect models to examine differences in white matter diffusion metrics as a function of hypertension in a well-characterized cohort of middle-aged men (N=316, mean 61.8 years; range 56.7–65.6). Diffusion metrics were examined in nine tracts reported to be sensitive to hypertension in older adults. Relative to normotensive individuals, individuals with longstanding hypertension (> 5.6 years) showed reduced fractional anisotropy or increased diffusivity in most tracts. Effects were stronger among carriers than non-carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele for two tracts connecting frontal regions with other brain areas. Significant differences were observed even after adjustment for potentially-related lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors. Shorter duration of hypertension or better blood pressure control among hypertensive individuals did not lessen the adverse effects. These findings suggest that microstructural white matter alterations appear early in the course of hypertension and may persist despite adequate treatment. Although longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings, the results suggest that prevention—rather than management—of hypertension may be vital to preserving brain health in aging.