Among the host of personality and life experience factors included in the random forests model, only three factors, namely, harm avoidance, neuroticism, and uplift experiences, were identified as key features that contributed to differentiating the memory group from the controls. Our findings suggest increased harm avoidance in the memory group, evidenced by more evidence of internalizing traits and negative mood states in these individuals. Although past studies have shown mixed findings for the harm avoidance subscale of the TPQ in predicting AUD/SUD and risk [38,137], some recent studies have associated these internalizing traits with the harmful use of alcohol and other substances [138,139] and with the risk of developing AUD [140,141,142]. Interestingly, alcohol and other psychoactive substances are often used to self-medicate negative mood states such as depression [143,144]. Furthermore, higher neuroticism in the memory group may be related to a variety of alcohol-related outcomes, including relapse [145]. Additionally, neuroticism has been associated with the ineffective use of coping strategies [146], while also mediating the relationship between AUD and neural connectivity [147]. Empirically, neuroticism has also been found to be
