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

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 ItemPOSTPONED: The Bitter Truth: Alcohol Use and Its Effects on Chemosensory Function , home
POSTPONED | Paule Valery Joseph, Ph.D., Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, NIH Distinguished Scholar; Acting Chief, Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism Unit, Co-Director of the National Smell and Taste Center, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Health Behaviors Research and Addiction Recovery Research Center
-
Home ItemOrganization and Control of Hippocampal Networks , home
Oct. 17, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Ivan Soltesz, Ph.D., James R. Doty Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurosciences, Stanford University | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Neurobiology Research
-
Home ItemMaury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture , 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 ItemThinking 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 ItemMaury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture , 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 ItemUnderstanding 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