Abstract
Adolescent substance misuse is a persistent international problem that impacts millions of adolescents worldwide and is associated with poor psychosocial, cognitive, and neurobiological outcomes. Recent advances in neuroimaging technology have allowed for a better understanding of the neurobiological effects of adolescent substance misuse. This chapter reviews recent evidence from neuroimaging studies investigating adolescent substance misuse (i.e., sMRI, DTI and fMRI) and identified that adolescent substance misuse is associated with widespread abnormalities in regional brain morphology, structural connectivity and brain function. These alterations were particularly marked in medial temporal, frontal-parietal and cerebellar regions. The research to date supports the notion that adolescent substance misuse is associated with adverse neurobiological outcomes that may persist throughout adulthood. This review emphasizes the utility of neuroimaging in investigating the possible neurobiological consequences of adolescent substance misuse and discusses clinical implications for neuroimaging research in the treatment of adolescent substance misuse.
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Takagi, M., Youssef, G., Lorenzetti, V. (2016). Neuroimaging of the Human Brain in Adolescent Substance Users. In: De Micheli, D., Andrade, A., da Silva, E., de Souza Formigoni, M. (eds) Drug Abuse in Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17795-3_6
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