Poster #164 - Brief, computerized inhibitory control training in adolescence: A translational neuroscience approach to intervention

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Prevention and Interventions

Integrative Statement

Increases in risk-taking are a hallmark of adolescence (Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg, 2004). Though evidence suggests that risk-taking assists in the achievement of goals specific to this developmental stage (i.e., gaining autonomy), this behavior also contributes to sharp increases in morbidity and mortality rates during adolescence (Casey, 2015). Adolescents who have experienced early adversity (e.g., poverty, community violence, etc.) are particularly likely to engage in risk-taking behavior such as alcohol consumption (Cornelius et al., 2016) and to experience associated negative outcomes such as substance use disorders (Barrett & Turner, 2005). Therefore, targeted intervention during adolescence, a developmental period characterized by increased neural plasticity, has the potential for far-reaching impacts.
Inhibitory control (IC), or the ability to inhibit a habitual behavior in service of a long-term goal, is a neurocognitive skill associated with risk-taking behavior (Wetherill et al., 2013, Goldenberg et al., 2013) and identified as a protective factor in individuals with early adversity exposure (Moffitt et al., 2011). Computerized IC training based on well-validated IC tasks represents a promising means by which to probe the extent to which IC and its well-characterized neural correlates may be malleable during adolescence. Recent work in college students has demonstrated the effectiveness of approximately 3 weeks of IC training that involved brief (~6 minute) sessions of a computerized task [Stop Signal Task (SST)] requiring participants to inhibit a repetitive motor response (Berkman et al., 2014). This IC training appears to improve IC behaviorally and, at the neural level, to engender a shift from reactive to proactive control, as evidenced by increases in activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), a key region in the IC neural network.
Given the relevance of IC for adolescent risk-taking, particularly in populations with early adversity exposure, we extended previous IC training work developmentally to examine the malleability of IC in adolescents with experiences of socioeconomic adversity. We administered IC training (vs. control training) to adolescents aged 15 to 17 (N=19). Participants completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions before and after 12-14 computerized IC training sessions that required inhibition of a repetitive motor response (i.e., a modified SST) across a month. In the scanner, participants completed the training task and other tasks to measure training transfer. Behavioral results demonstrated that the training group did not show significantly improved IC over time compared to the control group, F(1,15) = .977, p = .339, p2 = .061, though the training group did show improved IC over time based on simple effects, F(1,15) = 10.489, p = .006, p2 = .41 (Figure 1). Notably, imaging results showed that the training altered brain function particularly in areas associated with attention in the training group compared to the control group (Figure 2). These findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential of translational neuroscience work leveraging adolescence as a critical period for intervention.

Authors

• Kate Beauchamp, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
  Presenting Author

• Philip Fisher, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elliot Berkman, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author