Author: Adolf Pfefferbaum

Grip strength is considered one of the simplest and reliable indices of general health. Although motor ability and strength are commonly affected in people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), factors predictive of grip strength decline in AUD have not been investigated. Here, we employed a data-driven analysis predicting grip strength from measurements in 53 controls…

Regional thalamic volumetry detected normal aging declines, differential and accelerated volume losses in HIV, relations between age-related nuclear and performance declines, and exacerbation of volume declines in comorbid alcohol use disorder contributing to functional deficits.

Here, we examined relations between thalamic subregions (anterior, ventral, medial, and posterior) and neuropsychological functions (attention/working memory, executive functioning, episodic memory, and motor skills) in relation to HIV and alcohol use disorder.

To generate high-quality T1-weighted MRIs relevant for neuroscience discovery, we present a two-stage Diffusion Probabilistic Model (called BrainSynth) to synthesize high-resolution MRIs conditionally-dependent on metadata (such as age and sex). We then propose a novel procedure to assess the quality of BrainSynth according to how well its synthetic MRIs capture macrostructural properties of brain regions…

Early adolescent drinking onset is linked to myriad negative consequences. Using the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) baseline to year 8 data, this study (1) leveraged best subsets selection and Cox Proportional Hazards regressions to identify the most robust predictors of adolescent first and regular drinking onset, and (2) examined the…

Substance use disorders are characterized by inhibition deficits related to disrupted connectivity in white matter pathways, leading via interaction to difficulties in resisting substance use. By combining neuroimaging with smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA), we questioned how biomarkers moderate inhibition deficits to predict use.

With aging, people with HIV (PWH) have diminishing postural stability that increases liability for falls. Factors and neuromechanisms contributing to instability are incompletely known. Brain white matter abnormalities seen as hyperintense (WMH) signals have been considered to underlie instability in normal aging and PWH. We questioned whether sway-WMH relations endured after accounting for potentially relevant…

Heavy alcohol drinking is a major, preventable problem that adversely impacts the physical and mental health of US young adults. Studies seeking drinking risk factors typically focus on young adults who enrolled in 4-year residential college programs (4YCP) even though most high school graduates join the workforce, military, or community colleges. We examined 106 of…

Here, a sample including 160 individuals with alcohol use disorders, 142 living with HIV, and 102 healthy controls was used to test the hypothesis that serum albumin would be inversely related to white matter hyperintensities volumes and directly related to cognitive performance in the two diagnostic groups.

The goal of this study was to investigate the origin of brain lactate (Lac) signal after injection of hyperpolarized (HP) [1-13C]pyruvate (Pyr).

Antiretroviral treatment has enabled people living with HIV infection to have a near-normal life span. With longevity comes opportunities for engaging in risky behavior, including initiation of excessive drinking. Given that both HIV infection and alcohol use disorder (AUD) can disrupt brain white matter integrity, we questioned whether HIV infection, even if successfully treated, or…

Here, we examined the neural and behavioral correlates of childhood trauma history in alcohol use disorder (AUD), HIV infection (HIV), and their comorbidity (AUD+HIV).