Altered Cortico-Subcortical Network After Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Mediates Behavioral Deficits in Flexible Decision-Making
Behavioral flexibility, the ability to modify behavior according to changing conditions, is essential to optimize decision-making. Deficits in behavioral flexibility that persist into adulthood are one consequence of adolescent alcohol exposure, and another is decreased functional connectivity in br...
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | article |
| Lenguaje: | EN |
| Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doaj.org/article/7304f24861974a359b8ff3c5171c669f |
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| Sumario: | Behavioral flexibility, the ability to modify behavior according to changing conditions, is essential to optimize decision-making. Deficits in behavioral flexibility that persist into adulthood are one consequence of adolescent alcohol exposure, and another is decreased functional connectivity in brain structures involved in decision-making; however, a link between these two outcomes has not been established. We assessed effects of adolescent alcohol and sex on both Pavlovian and instrumental behaviors and resting-state functional connectivity MRI in adult animals to determine associations between behavioral flexibility and resting-state functional connectivity. Alcohol exposure impaired attentional set reversals and decreased functional connectivity among cortical and subcortical regions-of-interest that underlie flexible behavior. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that adolescent alcohol-induced reductions in functional connectivity within a subnetwork of affected brain regions statistically mediated errors committed during reversal learning. These results provide a novel link between persistent reductions in brain functional connectivity and deficits in behavioral flexibility resulting from adolescent alcohol exposure. |
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