Neural reward sensitivity and longitudinal patterns of alcohol and cannabis use in college-aged youth.

BACKGROUND Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used substances among adolescents, yet the neurobiological mechanisms that confer risk for alcohol and cannabis use disorder remain poorly understood. Abnormalities in neural reward processing have been implicated in the etiology of substance use disorders, but their predictive utility is unclear. Identifying such risk factors is critical for developing prevention and intervention strategies for high-risk youth. METHOD We examined whether deficits in neural reward processing predicted changes in problematic alcohol and cannabis use symptoms in youth (ages 16-19, n = 172) with minimal prior substance use. At baseline, the reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential (ERP) measured via electroencephalography, was used to index deficits in neural reward processing. Every 3 months for 2 years, participants reported problematic cannabis and alcohol use symptoms. To examine changes in substance use problems, we conducted a series of linear mixed-effects models (LMMs). RewP amplitude was the key predictor and linear and quadratic terms for time were included as fixed effects. RESULTS In our cannabis use model, we observed a significant linear time X RewP interaction. Lower RewP amplitude predicted increases in cannabis use problems over 24-months. At higher levels of RewP amplitude, there was no effect of time on cannabis use problems. We did observe a positive effect of time on alcohol use problems. We found no main/interactive effects of RewP on alcohol use problems. CONCLUSIONS A blunted RewP is a robust predictor of risk for cannabis use problems, offering potential for early identification and targeted intervention in vulnerable youth.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence

• Publication date

  2026-02-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113079PMID 41713074
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Drinking alcohol by mid-adolescence is related to reduced reward reactivity: Novel evidence of positive valence system alterations in early initiating female youth.

  2023cited by this paper
• Adolescent alcohol initiation: Context of close friendships and the role of trust.

  2022cited by this paper
• Δ9-THC reduces reward-related brain activity in healthy adults

  2022cited by this paper
• Decreased reward-related brain function prospectively predicts increased substance use.

  2021cited by this paper
• Adolescent Alcohol Use Trajectories: Risk Factors and Adult Outcomes

  2020cited by this paper
• Cannabis users demonstrate enhanced neural reactivity to reward: An event-related potential and time-frequency EEG study.

  2020cited by this paper
• Attenuated reward activations associated with cannabis use in anxious/depressed individuals

  2020cited by this paper
• Reward activation in childhood predicts adolescent substance use initiation in a high-risk sample.

  2019cited by this paper
• Association Between Recreational Marijuana Legalization in the United States and Changes in Marijuana Use and Cannabis Use Disorder From 2008 to 2016.

  2019cited by this paper
• Blunted Reward Sensitivity and Trait Disinhibition Interact to Predict Substance Use Problems

  2019cited by this paper
• A test of dopamine hyper- and hyposensitivity in alcohol use.

  2019cited by this paper
• Prospective predictors of first-onset depressive disorders in adolescent females with anxiety disorders.

  2018cited by this paper
• Time-Frequency Reward-Related Delta Prospectively Predicts the Development of Adolescent-Onset Depression.

  2018cited by this paper
• Neural Responsiveness to Reward as an Index of Depressive Symptom Change Following Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and SSRI Treatment.

  2018cited by this paper
• Psychometric properties of neural responses to monetary and social rewards across development.

  2018cited by this paper
• Altered neural oscillations and elevated dopamine levels in the reward pathway during alcohol relapse

  2017cited by this paper
• Considering ERP difference scores as individual difference measures: Issues with subtraction and alternative approaches.

  2017cited by this paper
• Neural reactivity to reward and internalizing symptom dimensions.

  2017cited by this paper
• Anhedonia is associated with blunted reward sensitivity in first-degree relatives of patients with major depression.

  2016cited by this paper
• Blunted Neural Response to Rewards as a Prospective Predictor of the Development of Depression in Adolescent Girls.

  2016cited by this paper
• Association of Marijuana Use With Blunted Nucleus Accumbens Response to Reward Anticipation.

  2016cited by this paper
• The effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dopamine system

  2016cited by this paper
• To drink or not to drink: Harmful drinking is associated with hyperactivation of reward areas rather than hypoactivation of control areas in men.

  2016cited by this paper
• fMRI study of neural sensitization to hedonic stimuli in long‐term, daily cannabis users

  2016cited by this paper
• The reward positivity: from basic research on reward to a biomarker for depression.

  2015cited by this paper
• Neural reactivity to monetary rewards and losses differentiates social from generalized anxiety in children.

  2015cited by this paper
• Dopamine in the Brain: Hypothesizing Surfeit or Deficit Links to Reward and Addiction

  2015cited by this paper
• The stability of the feedback negativity and its relationship with depression during childhood and adolescence

  2015cited by this paper
• Blunted neural response to rewards as a vulnerability factor for depression: Results from a family study.

  2015cited by this paper
• The influence of anhedonia on feedback negativity in major depressive disorder.

  2014cited by this paper
• ERPLAB: an open-source toolbox for the analysis of event-related potentials

  2014cited by this paper
• Decreased dopamine brain reactivity in marijuana abusers is associated with negative emotionality and addiction severity

  2014cited by this paper
• The effect of peer influence and selection processes on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies

  2014cited by this paper
• Reward dysfunction in major depression: Multimodal neuroimaging evidence for refining the melancholic phenotype

  2014cited by this paper
• Neural Effects of Positive and Negative Incentives during Marijuana Withdrawal

  2013cited by this paper
• BCILAB: a platform for brain–computer interface development

  2013cited by this paper
• Self-report and behavioral measures of reward sensitivity predict the feedback negativity.

  2013cited by this paper
• Blunted neural response to rewards prospectively predicts depression in adolescent girls.

  2013cited by this paper
• Elevated reward region responsivity predicts future substance use onset but not overweight/obesity onset.

  2013cited by this paper
• Neurocircuitry involved in the development of alcohol addiction: the dopamine system and its access points.

  2013cited by this paper
• Theoretical frameworks and mechanistic aspects of alcohol addiction: alcohol addiction as a reward deficit disorder.

  2013cited by this paper
• Ventral striatal and medial prefrontal BOLD activation is correlated with reward-related electrocortical activity: A combined ERP and fMRI study

  2011cited by this paper
• The impact of peer social networks on adolescent alcohol use initiation.

  2011cited by this paper
• Vulnerability to peer influence: a moderated mediation study of early adolescent alcohol use initiation.

  2011cited by this paper
• Event‐related potential activity in the basal ganglia differentiates rewards from nonrewards: Temporospatial principal components analysis and source localization of the feedback negativity

  2011cited by this paper
• Increased ventral striatal BOLD activity during non-drug reward anticipation in cannabis users

  2010cited by this paper
• An improved brief measure of cannabis misuse: the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R).

  2010cited by this paper
• Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure: A scale development study

  2006cited by this paper
• EEGLAB: an open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial EEG dynamics including independent component analysis.

  2004cited by this paper
• Exploring the association between cannabis use and depression.

  2003cited by this paper
• The Medial Frontal Cortex and the Rapid Processing of Monetary Gains and Losses

  2002cited by this paper
• The Reward Deficiency Syndrome: A Biogenetic Model for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Impulsive, Addictive and Compulsive Behaviors

  2000cited by this paper
• Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty

  1992cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.