Chunk #27 — Neurocognitive and Brain Functional Response Systems and Their Operational Relationships to the Undercontrol/Disinhibition Developmental Pathway
The development of these systems can be perturbed in multiple ways. Early biological insult or genetic risk may interfere with development. Caregiver scaffolding also plays a crucial role in development of both control systems (for reviews, see Eisenberg & Morris, 2002; Nigg, Hinshaw, & Huang-Pollock, 2006; Rothbart & Bates, 1998, 2006). Further, high stress exposure in early development has lasting effects on these brain and neurochemical systems (Braun et al., 2000; Bremner & Vermetten, 2001), as well as increasing the likelihood of substance abuse and externalizing problems in adolescence (Dembo et al., 1988; Harrison et al., 1997). Although much of the work in this area has established only one or another facet of these relationships, recent evidence indicates that insults to these systems are detectable simultaneously in neural activation patterning, behavior, and SUD risk. Heitzeg and colleagues have been able to identify dysregulation of reward-related circuitry as well as prefrontal control in adolescents at high risk for SUD (Heitzeg et al., 2008). Moreover, dysregulation was correlated with externalizing behavior problems. Within the context of high-risk populations, these findings suggest that
