# Behavioral Economic Trajectories of Alcohol Misuse in Emerging Adults: Neuroeconomic Augmentation via Electroencephalography

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS · 2020 · $205,978

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Alcohol misuse remains a major public health problem in emerging adults (age 18-25). Excessive drinking is
the largest source of morbidity and mortality in this age group and predicts subsequent alcohol problems
across the lifespan. Although most emerging adults “mature out” of hazardous drinking and transition into
moderate use, many continue a developmentally persistent pattern of alcohol misuse, and the predictors of
differential trajectories remain largely unknown. A large number of cross-sectional studies have found
significant associations between alcohol misuse and indices from behavioral economics, thus we are currently
conducting a longitudinal investigation of behavioral economic indicators as processes in regular binge
drinkers from their early twenties (21-24) to their mid-twenties (24-27). However, this “parent” R01 study does
not include any measures of biological risk factors, so the proposed R21 study aims to collect
neurophysiological measures of reward processing in a subsample at two timepoints spaced 8 months apart
during the parent longitudinal study. The neurophysiological measures include two event-related potential
(ERP) components that are robustly associated with reward processing: (1) P3, which reflects the incentive
salience of alcohol-related vs. alcohol-free stimuli and (2) Reward Positivity (RewP), which will reflect
sensitivity to immediate versus delayed reward. These ERP data would permit systematic investigation of the
ERPs as biomarkers of persistent alcohol risk, a substantially understudied relationship in the existing
literature. To address this question, the study will recruit 355 participants from the existing study to complete
additional EEG sessions during already-scheduled study visits. This study has two primary aims. The first aim
is to integrate cross-sectional neurophysiological measures into the ongoing longitudinal study to examine the
utility of these measures to predict problematic alcohol use individually and in conjunction with behavioral
economic indicators. The second aim is to determine correspondence between longitudinal changes in
neurophysiological and behavioral economic indices of risk and their relations to alcohol misuse. Longitudinal
models will be used to examine if changes in the neurophysiological indicators are responsible for changes in
alcohol misuse over time and to disentangle overlapping versus independent influences.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9901827
- **Project number:** 1R21AA027679-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES MACKILLOP
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $205,978
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-03-01 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9901827

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9901827, Behavioral Economic Trajectories of Alcohol Misuse in Emerging Adults: Neuroeconomic Augmentation via Electroencephalography (1R21AA027679-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9901827. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*