# NCANDA Research Project Site: PITT

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2021 · $444,891

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
During young adulthood, drinking dramatically increases, with binge-level drinking peaking at age 22 and
nearly half of individuals reporting binge-level alcohol use. Frequent binge alcohol use during the protracted
neuromaturation spanning into the mid-20s may result in greater brain and cognitive effects than similar
alcohol use in later adulthood. In response to RFA-AA-17-003, this application proposes a Research Project
Site of the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence second phase (NCANDA-2)
to determine the predictors and effects of heavy alcohol use in adolescence and young adulthood. To achieve
this, the Pittsburgh site of NCANDA-2 will continue to follow a cohort of 125 Pittsburgh-area (n=831 across all
5 sites) participants (ages 12-21 at baseline first visit) to acquire the necessary data to advance our
understanding of adolescent development and the effects of alcohol use during adolescence on the adult brain.
NCANDA-2 will use multimodal neuroimaging, cognitive testing, behavioral assessment, biospecimen
collection, and ecological momentary assessment. The examination of alcohol consequences will focus on
structural and functional maturation of brain areas that actively develop during adolescence, are involved in
psychological regulation, respond to rewards, and appear vulnerable to neurotoxic effects of alcohol. In
addition, the Pittsburgh site will collaborate with the SRI sites to study sleep-related predictors and effects of
alcohol use in a subgroup of adolescents. Pittsburgh will also collaborate with the Duke site to collect the
Rewarded Antisaccade fMRI task to evaluate changes in the reward and cognitive control systems in
relationship to alcohol use. Sex differences in development, alcohol use patterns, impact of alcohol use on the
brain, and sex-differentiating psychosocial factors (e.g., depression symptoms) will be considered in analyses.
With the additional longitudinal data provided by this renewal, we will determine the effects of alcohol exposure
on the developmental trajectory of the adolescent human brain, and identify preexisting psychobiological
vulnerabilities that may put an adolescent or young adult at elevated risk for an alcohol use disorder.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10187458
- **Project number:** 5U01AA021690-10
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** DUNCAN B. CLARK
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $444,891
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-05 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10187458

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10187458, NCANDA Research Project Site: PITT (5U01AA021690-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10187458. Licensed CC0.

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