From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Brain Profiles May Suggest Risk for Problem Drinking, Sexual Behavior By Rick   
   Nauert PhD   
      
      
   Brain Imaging Predicts Teen Promiscuity, Drinking Risk   
      
   Duke University researchers believe they have discovered two distinct brain   
   profiles that appear to be associated with risky sexual activity and problem   
   drinking among young adults.   
      
   Researchers say the scans show an imbalance in functions of typically   
   complementary brain regions. They believe the findings may allow clinicians to   
   one day predict how likely young adults are to develop problem drinking or   
   engage in risky sexual    
   behavior in response to stress.   
      
   The new research is part of the ongoing Duke Neurogenetics Study (DNS), which   
   began in 2010 to better understand how interactions between the brain, genome   
   and environment shape risky behaviors that can predict mental illnesses   
   including depression,    
   anxiety, and addiction.   
      
   “By knowing the biology that predicts risk, we hope to eventually change the   
   biology or at least meet that biology with other forces to stem the risk,”   
   said the senior author of both studies, Ahmad Hariri, Ph.D., professor of   
   psychology and    
   neuroscience at Duke University.   
      
   In both studies, the team used non-invasive functional MRI imaging to measure   
   the activity of two brain areas that help shape opposing behaviors crucial for   
   survival: the reward-seeking ventral striatum and the threat-assessing   
   amygdala.   
      
   As part of the project, in 2012 researchers evaluated 200 participants and   
   discovered that having both an overactive ventral striatum and an underactive   
   amygdala was associated with problem drinking in response to stress.   
      
   The researchers also discovered that the inverse brain pattern — low ventral   
   striatum and high amygdala activity — predicted problem drinking in response   
   to stress both at the time of the scan and three months after.   
      
   These results appear in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.   
      
   “We now have these two distinct profiles of risk that, in general, reflect   
   imbalance in the function of typically complementary brain areas,” Hariri   
   said.   
      
   “If you have high activity in both areas, no problem. If you have low   
   activity in both areas, no problem. It’s when they’re out of whack that   
   individuals may have problems with drinking.”   
      
   Interestingly, people with the two different risk profiles may drink for   
   different reasons.   
      
   Hariri speculates that those with high ventral striatum activity may be   
   motivated to drink because they are impulsive; combined with a lower danger   
   signal coming from the amygdala, they may be less inclined to reign in their   
   behavior.   
      
   In contrast, the participants with low ventral striatum activity usually have   
   lower mood, and an overactive amygdala may make them more sensitive to stress,   
   so they might drink as a coping mechanism.   
      
   Balance in the activity of the ventral striatum and the amygdala also predicts   
   sexual behavior, according to the second study, which appears in the Journal   
   of Neuroscience.   
      
   In that study, a team led by graduate student Elizabeth Victor asked a subset   
   of DNS participants (70 heterosexual men and women) how many new sexual   
   partners they acquired over an 11-month period.   
      
   For men, the same pattern of brain activity linked to problem drinking, high   
   ventral striatum and low amygdala activity, was associated with a greater   
   number of sexual partners compared to those men with more balanced activity of   
   the two brain areas.   
      
   But the pattern for more sexually active women was different: They had   
   higher-than-normal activity in both the ventral striatum and the amygdala,   
   indicating both high reward and high threat.   
      
   “It’s not really clear why that is,” Hariri said. “One possibility is   
   that this amygdala signal is representing different things in men and women.”   
      
   In women, amygdala activity might be driving general awareness, arousal, and   
   responsiveness which, when combined with strong reward-related activity in the   
   ventral striatum, leads to a greater number of partners. In contrast, in men,   
   the amygdala signal    
   could be more focused on detecting danger, Hariri said.   
      
   Measuring brain-based predictors of sexual behavior is largely uncharted   
   territory, Victor said. Although a previous study tied higher ventral striatum   
   activity to more sexual partners, no prior studies have accounted for amygdala   
   activity.   
      
   Source: Duke University/EurekAlert   
      
    Scientifically Reviewed    
       Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 4 Jul 2015   
       Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.   
      
       
      
   About Rick Nauert PhD   
      
   Rick Nauert, PhDDr. Rick Nauert has over 25 years experience in clinical,   
   administrative and academic healthcare. He is currently an associate professor   
   for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professionals doctoral program in   
   health promotion and    
   wellness. Dr. Nauert began his career as a clinical physical therapist and   
   served as a regional manager for a publicly traded multidisciplinary   
   rehabilitation agency for 12 years. He has masters degrees in health-fitness   
   management and healthcare    
   administration and a doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin   
   focused on health care informatics, health administration, health education   
   and health policy. His research efforts included the area of telehealth with a   
   specialty in disease    
   management.   
   View all posts by Rick Nauert PhD →   
      
      
      
      
   http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/07/05/brain-imaging-predicts-t   
   en-promiscuity-drinking-risk/86407.html   
      
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