# Relating corticostriatal development to goal-directed learning and drug use across adolescence

> **NIH NIH F32** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $51,331

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Adolescents are more vulnerable than adults to substance use initiation and addiction due to neural
restructuring during this developmental period. A complex circuitry connecting the cortex to striatum is both
implicated in goal-directed action selection, and is dysregulated in addiction. Critically, developmental changes
in connectivity of this broader corticostriatal circuitry, and how such changes relate to action selection and
substance use across adolescence, have not been well characterized. Understanding developmental shifts in
connectivity of corticostriatal circuitry across adolescence, both between cortex and striatum and within
subregions of the striatum, may fill explanatory gaps in the adolescent risk-taking literature and provide insights
into addiction mechanisms. The proposed work will use several advanced computational and neuroimaging
techniques in an existing developmental dataset to characterize corticostriatal connectivity as it relates to goal-
directed behavior and substance use during the transition from late childhood through early adulthood. Specific
Aim 1 will use recently developed resting-state functional-connectivity analyses, in concert with diffusion-
weighted structural connectivity measures, to understand dynamic shifts in connectivity strength between
striatal regions and the cortex. Specific Aim 2 will employ dynamic causal modeling to understand age patterns
in information transfer within the striatum, from ventral to dorsal regions, which can help to elucidate how
circuitry involved in reward valuation drive choices across development. Finally, Specific Aim 3 will relate the
strength of corticostriatal and intra-striatal structural and task-based functional connectivity to computational
models of goal-directed task behavior across development, and will also explore how connectivity relates to
self reports of drug use. This research can help to shape theories of adolescent risk taking by defining specific
roles for various sub-circuits of corticostriatal circuitry in adolescents' risk taking. This work also has wider-
reaching implications by elucidating how developmental shifts in corticostriatal circuitry may increase
adolescents' vulnerability to drug use and addiction. During this fellowship, the applicant will learn to implement
multiple advanced neuroimaging analyses and computational models of behavior in preparation for an
academic career in developmental cognitive neuroscience.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9998952
- **Project number:** 5F32DA047047-03
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gail M Rosenbaum
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $51,331
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2021-05-17

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9998952

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9998952, Relating corticostriatal development to goal-directed learning and drug use across adolescence (5F32DA047047-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9998952. Licensed CC0.

---

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