Development and Testing of Behavioral and Brain Imaging Tasks for Alcohol Use Disorder and Healthy Adults

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying how alcohol use disorders affect brain structure and behavior. This research aims to develop and test tasks that measure specific cognitive, motivational, and decision-making behaviors. The goal is to create tasks that can be used in future studies to better understand these effects, including brain activity associated with these behaviors. The study involves both healthy volunteers and people with alcohol dependence or moderate alcohol use disorder. Participants will be involved in tasks performed either inside or outside a magnetic resonance imaging MRI scanner. The tasks are designed to assess behavior and brain function using functional MRI fMRI and may also use other devices like EEG and functional near infrared spectrometer fNIRS when MRI is not suitable. The MRI scanner takes detailed pictures of the brain while participants perform tasks, with sessions lasting about 60 minutes. Participants may have between one and three visits during the study. During the study, participants will undergo medical history review, physical exams, electrocardiograms EKG, blood and urine sample collections, and psychiatric interviews. They will be asked about their alcohol use to determine the presence of an alcohol use disorder. Researchers will monitor behavior through computerized tasks and brain imaging. The main outcome is to develop reliable tasks that measure targeted behaviors and brain activation. Participation involves screening and up to three visits with various assessments to gather comprehensive data.

Behavioral and Functional Task Development, Implementation, and Testing