Chunk #18 — HOW DO NEURAL SIGNATURES ASSOCIATED WITH AUD HELP ELUCIDATE THE ROLE OF BRAIN FUNCTION IN THE RISK AND CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL USE AND AUD ACROSS THE LIFESPAN?
From its inception, COGA has recognized the importance of individual differences in brain function as both an antecedent and consequence of AUD. We have implemented a comprehensive battery of neurophysiological measures designed to assess activation and communication in neural networks in resting state and neural processing during cognitive tasks found to be affected in AUD (e.g., attention, response inhibition, reward processing). With this approach, we have identified neurophysiological measures that are associated with AUD as well as neurophysiological measures that differ based on family history of AUD and are present in some family members, even before alcohol exposure. The neurophysiological and neuropsychological COGA data have been instrumental in demonstrating that variations in brain function are both antecedents to, and consequences of, the effects of prolonged and heavy alcohol consumption and AUD (Table 3 provides specific results with neural measures during resting state and cognitive tasks and measures of neurocognitive function). COGA data have been particularly useful in studying the role of brain function as a neural liability for risk of AUD, and determining which of the measures of brain function
