Neurophysiological, Neuroimaging, and Neuropsychological Predictors of Human Alcoholism and Risk

Over the last several decades, both brain electrophysiological measurements, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related potentials/oscillations (ERPs/EROs), and neuroimaging measures have immensely contributed to our understanding of neural mechanisms underlying various psychiatric disorders, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). This Special Issue was launched to invite research and review articles that explore the utility of these neural measures to determine the effects of alcohol use (e.g., regular drinking, social drinking, binge/heavy drinking, and chronic drinking) on brain structure and function and/or to predict risk for developing AUD and other outcomes (e.g., other drug use and externalizing/internalizing traits) across various demographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.). We received seven scholarly articles, each dealing with specialized topics, which contribute to enhancing our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying AUD and its risk. The titles of the contributing articles are: (i) Random Forest Classification of Alcohol Use Disorder Using EEG Source Functional Connectivity, Neuropsychological Functioning, and Impulsivity Measures; (ii) Delta Event-Related Oscillations Are Related to a History of Extreme Binge Drinking in Adolescence and Lifetime Suicide Risk; (iii) Alcohol Use and Prefrontal Cortex Volume Trajectories in Young Adults with Mood Disorders and Associated Clinical Outcomes; (iv) Statistical Nonparametric fMRI Maps in the Analysis of Response Inhibition in Abstinent Individuals with History of Alcohol Use Disorder; (v) Differentiating Individuals with and without Alcohol Use Disorder Using Resting-State fMRI Functional Connectivity of Reward Network, Neuropsychological Performance, and Impulsivity Measures; (vi) Epigenetic Effects in HPA Axis Genes Associated with Cortical Thickness, ERP Components and SUD Outcome; and (vii) Predicting Alcohol-Related Memory Problems in Older Adults: A Machine Learning Study with Multi-Domain Features. This Special Issue contains a range of useful topics, covering the utility of EEG, MRI, neuropsychology, epigenetics, environmental, behavioral, and clinical measures related to outcomes, and biological risks related to AUD, which will be useful to alcohol researchers around the world.