Investigating sex differences and age of onset in emotion regulation, executive functioning, and cannabis use in adolescents and young adults

BACKGROUND

Young adults have historically high levels of cannabis use at a time which coincides with emotional and cognitive development. Age of regular onset of cannabis use and sex at birth are hypothesized to influence the relationship between cannabis use and cognition. Here we investigated past 6-month cannabis use in relation to emotional and executive functioning. We further considered age of onset and sex in subgroup analyses.

METHOD

Young adults (N = 225; ages 16-22) completed a substance use interview and cognitive battery, including the Emotional Word-Emotional Face Stroop and NIH toolbox executive functioning tasks. Linear regressions examined relationships between past 6-month cannabis use episodes and performance. Subgroup analyses investigated whether age of onset or sex impacted relationships.

RESULTS

After correcting for multiple comparisons, greater past 6-month cannabis use episodes were related to poorer Emotional Stroop Congruent Accuracy (p = .0004, FDR-p = .002) and List Sorting Working Memory (p = .02, FDR-p = .10) performance. Younger age of regular use onset marginally related to lower Emotional Stroop Congruent Accuracy performance (p = .03, FDR-p = .13). There were no cannabis use by sex interactions on cognition.

CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with prior findings, results suggest small reductions in cannabis-related performance in processing speed during emotional Stroop and working memory tasks. Age of onset was modestly related to Stroop performance, but not sex. Longitudinal studies which detail patterns of cannabis and other substance use are needed to better assess brain-behavior relationships and other factors (e.g., age of onset of regular use, sex) which could influence cannabis-related impairments in cognitive functioning.

Decision strategies while intoxicated relate to alcohol-impaired driving attitudes and intentions

OBJECTIVE

Approximately 28 million individuals engage in alcohol-impaired driving (AID) every year. This study investigated individuals' AID decision making strategies under intoxication, their variability across the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) curve, and the association between strategy and AID attitudes, intentions, and behavior.

METHOD

Seventy-nine adults (mean 23.9 years, 57% female) who drank alcohol ≥2 days per week and lived >2 miles away from their typical drinking locations completed an alcohol administration protocol and AID decision making task. AID attitudes, intentions, and behaviors were assessed repeatedly across the BrAC curve. Bayesian cognitive modeling identified decision strategies used by individuals on the AID decision making task, revealing whether alcohol consumption level and/or ride service cost factored into individuals' decisions to drive while impaired or obtain a ride. Additional analyses tested whether AID attitudes and intentions were related to individuals' decision strategies.

RESULTS

Two decision strategies were examined on the ascending and descending limbs of the BrAC curve: compensatory (both consumption level and ride service cost factored into AID decisions) and non-compensatory (only consumption level factored into AID decisions). Switching to a compensatory strategy on the descending limb was associated with lower perceived intoxication, perceiving AID as less dangerous, and being willing to drive above the legal BrAC limit.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that risk for engaging in AID is higher for those using a cost-sensitive, compensatory strategy when making AID decisions under intoxication. Future research is needed to test whether AID countermeasures (e.g., subsidized ride services) are differentially effective according to decision strategy type. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Impulsivity and polysubstance use: A systematic comparison of delay discounting in mono-, dual-, and trisubstance use

Understanding the association between polysubstance use and impulsivity is pertinent to treatment planning and efficacy. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsivity, supplies the rate at which a reinforcer loses value as the temporal delay to its receipt increases. Excessive delay discounting has been widely observed among drug-using individuals, though the impact of using more than 1 substance has been only minimally studied. Here, after controlling for demographic variables, we systematically compared delay discounting in community controls, heavy smokers, and alcohol- and cocaine-dependent individuals to assess the impact of non-, mono-, dual-, and trisubstance use. All substance-using groups discounted significantly more than did community controls (p < .05). Additionally, groups that smoked cigarettes in addition to another substance dependency discounted significantly more than did the group that smoked cigarettes only (p < .05). Last, trisubstance users who were alcohol-dependent, cocaine-dependent, and heavy cigarette smokers discounted significantly more than did heavy smokers (p < .01). However, trisubstance users did not discount significantly more than did any dual-substance group. Trisubstance use was associated with greater impulsivity than was monosubstance smoking but exhibited no greater impulsivity than did dual-substance use, suggesting a ceiling effect on discounting when more than 2 substances are in use. The present study suggests that smokers who engage in additional substance use may experience worse treatment outcomes, given that excessive discounting is predictive of poor therapeutic outcomes in several studies.

Computed tomography of the abdomen of calves during the first 105 days of life: I. Reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum

Computed tomographic (CT) images of the reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum of five healthy Holstein-Friesian bull calves were compared with anatomical transverse cadaver sections of the same calves. The calves were scanned in the transverse plane from the 5th thoracic vertebra to the sacrum six times three weeks apart from birth to 105 days of age. Multiplanar reconstruction was used to create images in sagittal and dorsal planes. After subjective assessment of various anatomical structures, the rumen, omasum and abomasum as well as the ruminal strata (gas cap, fibre mat and fluid phase) were measured. After the last CT scan, all calves were euthanised, and four were kept at -18 °C in sternal position for 14 days. Transverse sections 1.0 to 1.5 cm thick were made from two calves and dorsal and sagittal sections were made from one calf each using a band saw. The CT images and anatomical slices were compared and the structures on the CT images identified. Very clear CT images were obtained from the reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum and there was excellent agreement between images and anatomical slices.