IDEAA Consortium

Imaging Data in Emerging Adults with Addiction

The IDEAA (Imaging Data in Emerging Adults with Addiction) Consortium is a NIDA-funded multi-site multi-modal neuroimaging consortium designed to determine the effects marijuana usage on neurocognition (brain structure, white matter integrity, functional connectivity, and cognitive) and psychological functioning in adolescents and emerging adults. The consortium leaders include Drs. Krista Lisdahl (UWM site PI), Staci Gruber (McLean site PI), Francesca Filbey (UTD site PI) and Susan Tapert (UCSD site PI). The pooled data created by the IDEAA consortium will create the largest sample to date of well-characterized adolescent and emerging adult (ages 12-25) regular marijuana users and non-using controls (n=600-900 depending on the neuroimaging outcome). We will also be able to ascertain the impact of comorbid nicotine and alcohol/binge drinking use patterns, both alone and in combination with marijuana, on neurocognition and mental health in youth. Although the majority of this sample is cross-sectional, approximately 300 of the youth in the consortium were followed for a 3-year follow-up, allowing for additional longitudinal analyses.

Dr. Krista Lisdahl

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  • Associate Professor of Psychology

https://uwm.edu/psychology/people/lisdahl-krista-m/

Dr. Lisdahl serves as the UWM-site PI in the IDEAA consortium. She is also the director of the Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology (BraIN) Laboratory at UW-Milwaukee. Following completion of an APA clinical neuropsychology internship at the University of Arizona Medical School, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSD on functional magnetic resonance imaging and adolescent addiction under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Tapert. Her current research focus is on the neurocognitive consequences of chronic drug use during adolescence and young adulthood. More specifically, using magnetic resonance imaging (structural MRI, functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging) and neuropsychological assessment, the BraIN lab examines the effects of marijuana, alcohol, nicotine and ecstasy on brain structure and function. We also attempt to explain individual differences by examining whether gender, genetics (e.g., 5-HTTLPR, BDNF, COMT, NRG1, FAAH, KIBRA), or lifestyle factors (body mass index, cardiorespiratory health, activity markers) moderate these effects. We are also interested in studying these issues in healthy developing teens and young adults.

Dr. Staci Gruber

McLean Hospital

Harvard Medical School

  • Associate Professor of Psychiatry

http://www.mcleanhospital.org/biography/staci-gruber

Dr. Gruber also serves as the McLean-site PI in the IDEAA consortium. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical and research focus is the application of neurocognitive models and multimodal brain imaging to better characterize neurobiological risk factors for substance abuse and psychopathology. Dr. Gruber’s lab has examined the etiologic bases of neural models of dysfunction in patients with psychiatric disorders as well as marijuana-abusing adults. She is published in numerous journals and been the focus of national and international symposia and press conferences. Dr. Gruber is involved in the application of behavioral science to help shape policies regarding juvenile advocacy. Her ongoing initiative to educate policymakers, judges, attorneys and the public has had local and national impact. She also directs the MIND program, designed to clarify the effects of recreational and most recently, medical marijuana on brain structure, function, and quality of life.

Dr. Susan Tapert

University of California, San Diego

  • Professor of Psychiatry

https://profiles.ucsd.edu/Susan.Tapert

Dr. Tapert also serves as the UCSD-site PI in NCANDA and the IDEAA consortium. She became interested in addictive behavior research as an undergraduate at University of Washington, working with Dr. G. Alan Marlatt at the Addictive Behaviors Research Center. Her focus on adolescence started during her graduate studies with Dr. Sandra A. Brown in the UCSD-SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, where she specialized in neuropsychology and behavioral medicine. Her dissertation, completed in 1998, was on the reciprocal effects of neuropsychological functioning and substance use in youth. Following completion of an APA clinical psychology internship at Brown University, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSD on functional magnetic resonance imaging under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory G. Brown.

Dr. Francesca Filbey

The University of Texas at Dallas

  • Associate Professor

https://www.utdallas.edu/bbs/faculty/detail.php5?i=881

Dr. Filbey also serves as the UTD-site PI in the IDEAA consortium. Her research interests are focused on combining neuroimaging and genetic techniques to characterize neural mechanisms associated with addictive disorders. Specifically, she is interested in how environmental factors (e.g., adolescent onset of use, early life stress) mediate the neural mechanisms that are associated with addictive disorders and how genetic risk moderates these effects. Her current projects involve the determination of these effects using neuroimaging tools (sMRI, DTI, fMRI during resting state, cue-exposure tasks, reward and punishment tasks, response inhibition tasks and stress tasks) and a candidate gene approach in marijuana and tobacco users in addition to obese binge eaters.