Shirley Hill

..Only one tract showed a significant difference for exposure alone, the anterior thalamic radiation...

..Family-based association analysis shows the ASTN1 gene significantly associated with alcohol dependence. The potential importance of the ASTN1 gene for AD risk may be related its role in glial-guided neuronal migration...

..An interaction between allelic variation in GABRA2 and BDNF genes was associated with GM volumes, suggesting that inherited variation in these genes may promote early developmental differences in neuronal proliferation of the cerebellum...

..Multiplex AD families in which multiple cases of AD are present provide an ideal setting for understanding developmental variants of the adult phenotype...

..Behavioral control, including both over- and under-control, is likely to be subserved by neural circuitry associated with emotion regulation including the right OFC and the amygdala...

..A longitudinal study spanning childhood to young adulthood provided the opportunity to determine if these same factors would predict the presence and onset of substance use disorders (SUD)...

..The role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in regulating emotional processing is increasingly being recognized along with its association with impulsive behavior...

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..These characteristics may be related to inherited differences in the neuroanatomical network that comprises the social brain...

..Multipoint linkage analysis using different analytic strategies give strong support for loci on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 17...

..Finally, differences seen in amygdala volume between high- and low-risk adolescents suggest that functional differences seen in electrophysiological responding or neuropsychological test performance may have anatomical correlates...

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..Additionally, developmental changes in cerebellar volume during adolescence have been reported...

..Results were confirmed in three case-control studies. The objective of this study was to investigate the GABRA2 gene in another collection of multiplex families...

..062), but was consistent with the family data results. These results support a role for DRD2 as a susceptibility gene for alcohol dependence within multiplex families at high risk for developing alcohol dependence...

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..This review proposes several neurobehavioral mechanisms of genetic vulnerability that may account for phenotypic characteristics in individuals at risk for AUD...

..Finally, a review of studies showing associations between brain structural and functional characteristics and specific genes will be offered...

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..The possible interplay between environmental variation and the neurobiological factors associated with high-risk status also suggests the need to assess this variation in the context of a longitudinal follow-up. ..

..The combined resources of our research team will situate us to initiate positional cloning of a gene, should significant positive linkages be found with our Stage I and Stage 11 genotyping endeavors. ..

..Little is known about the factors that discourage continued heavy drinking in young adulthood for individuals from multigenerational alcohol dependent families in which a high density of individuals are dependent on alcohol. ..

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..4 cm intervals for all three generations would be combined and linkage analyses performed using the well validated alcoholism phenotype and the well validated childhood diagnoses obtained from the K-SADS. ..

..g., marriage, first career-related job) during this period as they relate to risk status and its interaction with other familial/genetic and other environmental factors. ..

..New measures will be added to explore non-shared environmental effects in these families where sibling pairs are available for study (N=346 sib pairs). ..

..Third, we plan to build the foundation for a comprehensive prospective longitudinal follow-up of children between the ages of 8-13 years...

..Also, we will begin to explore the nature of the neurobehavioral deficits reported in the literature for children of alcoholics utilizing measures of vigilance, iconic memory, and neurological functioning including static ataxia...