Children of alcoholics (COAs) are at elevated risk to develop alcohol and other substance use disorders. The neurobiological underpinnings of this heightened vulnerability are presently not well understood. This study investigated whether, in humans, COAs have different functioning of the mesolimbic reward circuitry beyond prior substance use confounds, and examined potential group differences in neural response in relation to alcohol use and behavioral risk. We studied twenty 18 to 22 year-old COAs and 20 controls, developmentally well-characterized for substance use and selected to match on sex, age, IQ, lifetime substance use and associated problems, and precursive (age 12–14) externalizing behavioral risk. None met criteria for DSM-IV diagnosis. Neural responses to anticipation of reward and loss were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary incentive delay task. Overall, COAs showed reduced ventral striatum activation during anticipation of monetary reward and loss compared to controls. However, further analysis revealed that blunted nucleus accumbens (NAcc) response was only observed in COAs who have not demonstrated any problem drinking behavior. In addition, uniquely in COAs, NAcc activation was positively correlated with precursive externalizing risk, as well as current and lifetime alcohol consumption. These findings suggest a multilevel developmental process whereby lower precursive behavioral risk appears protective of later problem alcohol use in COAs, which is further associated with a blunted NAcc response to incentive anticipation, potentially reflecting a resilience mechanism. Moreover, the results suggest a close association between motivational responses, alcohol consumption, and behavioral risk, may underlie addiction vulnerability in COAs.

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This study was designed to examine the effects of coviewing on low-income children's attention to and understanding of novel words in educational media. In addition, we sought to understand coviewing's contribution to children's receptive and expressive word learning when some target words were repeated more or less frequently. Using a within-subjects design, 83 preschoolers viewed 2 educational media stories, 1 with an adult coviewer, and the other without, in a counterbalanced approach. Eye-tracking technology recorded children's attention throughout viewing; pre-and posttests examined children's gains in receptive and expressive word identification. Results indicated that children's attention to target words was greater in the coviewing condition but appeared to contribute to expressive word learning only of lower repetition words. Attention mediated the relationship between coviewing and low-repetition word learning for expressive, but not receptive, vocabulary. Regardless of condition, children learned more words when they were repeated more frequently. This study provides further evidence that low-income children can pick up at least partial word knowledge on their own, particularly when words are repeated frequently. Educational Impact and Implications StatementNumerous policymakers have recommended adult coviewing of educational media to enhance young children's learning. This study focuses on its potential to enhance low-income preschoolers' word learning in programs, some of which were repeated more frequently than others. Results of our study suggests that coviewing's contribution was limited to situations when the word repetition was low; when words were repeated frequently, children seemed to pick up partial word knowledge on their own. Taken together, this research highlights both the features of educational media and the social supports that might contribute to low-income children's language learning.