Virginia Tech® home

In Person Seminar: Adolescent Alcohol, Behavioral Flexibility, and Excitatory/Inhibitory Balance in Control Circuitry

Insert your title here

Charlotte Boettiger, Ph.D.

Charlotte Boettiger, Ph.D.

Professor and Director
Behavioral & Integrative Neuroscience Program
Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies
UNC School of Medicine

Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar: Adolescent Alcohol, Behavioral Flexibility, and Excitatory:Inhibitory Balance in Control Circuitry

Date: Oct. 20, 2023

Time: 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

About this Seminar

Impaired behavioral flexibility is frequently observed in both animal models of adolescent alcohol exposure and in adults with a history of alcohol and other substance use disorders. Here Dr. Boettiger will show evidence that in adult humans, self-reported binge alcohol exposure during adolescence is associated with two markers of a shift in excitatory:inhibitory (E:I) balance in a key node of executive control, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The first measure is derived from resting-state EEG recording – the slope of the EEG power spectral slope, with a shallower slope linked to adolescent binge alcohol exposure. The second measure is derived from single voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy measures of GABA and glutamate/glutamine (Glx). These E:I balance measures are in turn associated with laboratory based task measurements of behavioral flexibility, such that shifts towards excitation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are associated with reduced behavioral flexibility. 

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and co-sponsored by the institute's Center for Health Behaviors Research and the Addiction Recovery Research Center. The Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series, which runs annually from September to May, has featured leading biomedical researchers from throughout the country since the program began in 2012. The lectures are also open to all members of the Virginia Tech community including graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff, as well as the public.

You May Also Be Interested In...

  • Home Item
    How Fluid Flow Shapes the Brain: Cancer and Cognitive Function
    How Fluid Flow Shapes the Brain: Cancer and Cognitive Function , home

    Oct. 30, 2025, 5:30 p.m. (Reception at 5 p.m.) | Jennifer Munson, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Cancer Research Center — Roanoke, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute; Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech College of Engineering | Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture

  • Home Item
    Thinking the Right Thoughts
    Thinking the Right Thoughts , home

    Oct. 31, 2025, 11 a.m. | Nathaniel Daw, Ph.D., Professor, Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Princeton University | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Human Neuroscience Research

  • Home Item
    Pandemics — The Lessons I've Learned
    Pandemics — The Lessons I've Learned , home

    Nov. 6, 2025, 5:30 p.m. (Reception at 5 p.m.) | Teresa Lambe, Ph.D., OBE, Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology, Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology, University of Oxford | Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture

  • Home Item
    Understanding Vascular Morphogenesis and Morphology: Live Insights from Zebrafish
    Understanding Vascular Morphogenesis and Morphology: Live Insights from Zebrafish , home

    Nov. 21, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Arndt F. Siekmann, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania | Co-Sponsored by the Center for Vascular and Heart Research, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute

  • Home Item
    The Metabolic Switch in Development and Degeneration
    The Metabolic Switch in Development and Degeneration , home

    Dec. 12, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Elizabeth Jonas, M.D., Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Internal Medicine (Endocrinology), Yale School of Medicine | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Neurobiology Research

  • Home Item
    Innovative Strategies for Overcoming Challenges in Brain Tumor Treatment
    Innovative Strategies for Overcoming Challenges in Brain Tumor Treatment , home

    Jan. 16, 2026, 11:00 a.m. | Kristin Huntoon, Ph.D., D.O., Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Arizona | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center – Roanoke