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Introduction
I analyze the rewarding effects of alcohol during adolescence, as assessed through animal and human experimental models, and epidemiological approaches. The research aims at identifying subpopulations of subjects with differential susceptibility to exhibit problematic alcohol consumption. The aim is to determine predictors of vulnerability to excessive alcohol consumption in adolescents.
Follow my Twitter @rpautassi
Current institution
Additional affiliations
March 2009 - present
December 2008 - present
Position
- Adjunct Researcher
Description
- The main interest of my research is the analysis of the rewarding effects of alcohol during the adolescent stage of development, as assessed through animal models.
Education
February 2006 - July 2007
May 2001 - April 2005
Faculty of Exacts, Physics and Natural Sciences, National University of Cordoba
Field of study
- Biological Sciences
February 1995 - December 1999
Publications
Publications (270)
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic condition in which the individual keeps drinking despite recognizing that such behavior is associated with a plethora of negative social, occupational, and health consequences. Several factors promote (e.g., a family history of AUD, exposure to aversive events, an early age of first alcohol use or intoxicatio...
Objectives
An early age of drinking onset is linked to a greater likelihood of alcohol-related problems. Alcohol use occurs in places featuring characteristic social groups, and different drinking contexts are associated with different levels of alcohol-related outcomes. Drinking context may affect drinking motives, expectations or alcohol-related...
Action verbs are critically embodied in motor brain networks. In Parkinson’s disease (PD), damage to the latter compromises access to such words. However, patients are not fully incapable of processing them, as their performance is far from floor level. Here we tested the hypothesis that action-verb processing in PD may rely on alternative disembod...
Long-term effects on the cardiovascular system of offspring exposed to fentanyl in utero are one of the understudied aspects of the opioid crisis. Previously, we have shown that offspring exposed to opioids in utero display exacerbated somatic signs of withdrawal compared to vehicle-exposed offspring. We also showed that prenatal opioid exposure in...
The Big Five personality traits have shown associations with symptoms of depression and anxiety among college students, but it is unclear which factors mediate these relationships. Past research suggests that psychological distress is closely related to difficulties in affect regulation (e.g., low distress tolerance). Therefore, the present study e...
Background: Ethanol consumption during pregnancy induces enduring detrimental effects in the offspring, manifesting as a spectrum of symptoms collectively termed as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Presently, there is a scarcity of treatments for FASD.Objectives: To analyze current literature, emphasizing evidence derived from preclinical m...
Background: Prior studies suggest that lower levels of mindfulness contribute to the motivation of using alcohol to cope with distress. Research examining this possibility is scarce or limited to alcohol, but not marijuana, related outcomes. Objectives: We examined separate models (for alcohol and for marijuana) to determine the associations betwee...
Rationale
Parenting experiences with caregivers play a key role in neurodevelopment. We recently reported that adolescents reared by a single-mother (SM) display an anxiety-prone phenotype and drink more alcohol, compared to peers derived from a biparental (BP) rearing condition.
Objectives
To investigate if SM and BP offspring infant mice exhibit...
Alcohol-related social norms are internalized beliefs regarding the extension and approval of alcohol consumption by social reference groups. Prevention programs based on social norms and behavioral insights are empirical evidence-based approaches that challenge cognitive biases and promote healthy choices by providing actual information of targete...
Background: Psychological distress (i.e., incipient symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression) may promote substance use through increased emission of cognitive distortions. These are automatic irrational thoughts that can promote distress, which in turn increases substance use. Aim: This study analyzed, in a sample of Uruguayan citizens, the uni...
El malestar psicológico está asociado a una mayor probabilidad de desarrollar cuadros psicopatológicos de alta incidencia en Uruguay, como los trastornos por uso de sustancias o el suicidio. Este trabajo analiza, mediante una encuesta aplicada 1527 uruguayos de entre 18 a 30 años, variables asociadas al malestar psicológico. Aplicamos la escala de...
It has been shown that ethanol‐induced interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) in adult male Sprague–Dawley rats was sensitized by environmental stimuli paired with ethanol and was accompanied by a conditioned increase in corticosterone (CORT). Adolescent males showed ethanol‐induced IL‐6 conditioning more readily than adults. The present studies examined whether fem...
Prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) causes several neurobehavioral impairments in the fetus. Postnatal days (PDs) 4–9 in rodents are considered equivalent to the third trimester of gestation in humans. This period is characterized by high rates of synaptogenesis and myelination and the maturation of key structures and transmitter systems. Nutritional s...
The development of excessive alcohol (ethanol) and/or highly palatable food self-administration is an essential task to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie these behaviors. Previous work has highlighted that ethanol self-administration is modulated by both the induction of aversive states (i.e., stress or frustration) and by the...
Background: It is important to identify students who would benefit from early interventions to reduce harmful drinking patterns and associated consequences. the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ) could be particularly useful as a screening tool in university settings. Objectives. The present study examined the utility of...
Background: The last decade has witnessed a surge of findings implicating neuroinflammatory processes as pivotal players in substance use disorders. The directionality of effects began with the expectation that the neuroinflammation associated with prolonged substance misuse contributes to long-term neuropathological consequences. As the literature...
Earlier age of alcohol use initiation has been consistently associated with later problematic alcohol use. However, it is unclear what aspect of early initiation is key for risk assessment and whether there are cultural differences. The present study examined relationships between Age of First Use (AFU) and Age of Habitual Use (AHU) on alcohol use...
Background: Prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) induces heightened ethanol intake at adolescence in preclinical studies. Ethanol intake alters the absorption of folate, a methyl-group donor critical for numerous cellular functions. The prenatal administration of folate is, therefore, a promising approach to reduce the effects of PEE.
Objectives: Experi...
Alcohol (ethanol) use is associated with significant health problems. This prompted efforts to recreate ethanol intake in murine animal models. The present chapter discusses the advantages and disadvantages of several methods to assess ethanol self-administration in these animal models. We then describe in detail a variant of a drinking-in-the-dark...
Background:
Ethanol drinking begins during adolescence and, particularly when occurs in a binge-like pattern, exerts lingering adverse consequences. Pre-clinical studies indicate that intermittent ethanol exposure (IEA, a model of repeated ethanol intoxication), or binge eating (BE) can increase subsequent ethanol consumption. It is unknown if the...
Negative emotional states (NES; i.e., depression, anxiety and stress) are likely contributors to the development of food addiction (FA). The association between NES and FA symptoms may be mediated by altered eating behaviors or by eating-to-cope motives. This study examined, in a sample of Argentinean young adults, the association between NES and F...
The International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism BULLETIN Volume 4 Issue 4
Underage drinking is associated with a wide range of negative consequences, including alterations in brain development and poor cognitive functioning. Personality traits linked to drinking include impulsivity, sensation seeking and risk taking. The present study examined, separately in preadolescents (11 to 13 years old) and adolescents (14 to 16 y...
El consumo de alcohol, tabaco y marihuana presenta una alta prevalencia entre adultos emergentes universitarios. Una variable que incide en el consumo de estas tres sustancias psicoactivas es la percepción de riesgo asociada a dicha conducta. Este estudio examinó -en adultos emergentes universitarios argentinos- la relación bi o multivariada, entre...
RationaleSerotonin (5-HT) is a monoamine neuromodulator that plays a key role in the organization of the central nervous system. 5-HT alterations may be associated to the emergence of social deficits and psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorders. Notably, disruption of the 5-HT system during sensitive perio...
Past research has examined the association of cultural orientation with drinking motives, alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems, mainly, at the country level or in participants from a single region. This study examined the indirect associations of features of cultural orientation (i.e., vertical individualism, vertical collectivism, horizontal...
Alcohol use disorder is a condition in which the individual keeps drinking alcohol despite repeated attempts to stop or control such behavior, which in turn generates negative social, occupational, and health consequences. Animal models have been developed to reproduce the deleterious effects of excessive ethanol intake, including ethanol-induced c...
Asociación de estados emocionales negativos con síntomas de adicción a los alimentos mediante conductas alimentarias y motivos de consumo
Fernández, Macarena*a; Dal Bianco, Nicólasb; Dato, Rocío, Positerib, Luciana; Pautassi, Ricardo b,c & Pilatti, Angelina a,b
a Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (CONICET-UNC), Córdoba, Argentina
b Facult...
Background: The identification of factors promoting simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use is important to promote early intervention efforts. The associations between impulsivity facets and SAM (or concurrent alcohol and marijuana, CAM) use have been analyzed in North American samples. These topics, however, remain unexplored in South Americ...
Background:
Chronic alcohol misuse is associated with alcoholic myopathy, characterized by skeletal muscle weakness and atrophy. Moreover, there is evidence that sports-related people seem to exhibit a greater prevalence of problematic alcohol consumption, especially binge drinking (BD), which might not cause alcoholic myopathy but can negatively...
There is a high level of comorbidity between depression and alcohol use disorder. Subanesthetic doses of ketamine induce short-acting and enduring antidepressant effects after a single or a few administrations. Considering such comorbidity, we assessed, in Swiss male mice, if ketamine-induced antidepressant-like effects would alter ethanol’s reward...
Animal models of alcohol (ethanol) self-administration are crucial to dissect the neurobiological mechanisms underlying alcohol dependence, yet only a few of these induce pharmacologically relevant levels of alcohol consumption and rarely the alcohol self-administration co-occurs with other addictive behaviours. The present study aims to validate a...
Ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is greater in late adolescence or young adulthood than in early adolescence. The role of the sigma receptor system in this age-related difference has not been extensively explored, particularly in female rats. This study assessed the effects of the activation of sigma-1 receptors (S1-R), via the sele...
Abstract
Impulsivity and risk taking: prospective effect on alcohol consumption in Argentine adolescents. Impulsivity and risk taking are personality traits associated to alcohol use. However, there is a scarcity of longitudinal studies evaluating how these factors affect alcohol use in Latin-American adolescents. The present study aimed at identif...
Aunque el consumo de marihuana es altamente prevalente entre universitarios de Argentina, poco se sabe respecto a los factores que permiten distinguir a los consumidores frecuentes de marihuana de quienes consumen esporádicamente. Por esta razón, en el presente trabajo se indagó sobre las posibles variaciones en los contextos de consumo, motivos de...
El consumo de sustancias es altamente prevalente en estudiantes universitarios de Argentina y el mundo. Diferenciar consumidores con diversos patrones de consumo de sustancias es importante para identificar aquellos más vulnerables a avanzar hacia un consumo patológico. Por ello, el objetivo fue identificar, mediante Análisis de Clases Latentes (AC...
Introduction:
Previous work suggests that college students who perceive themselves as less able to tolerate negative affect are more motivated to use alcohol to alleviate psychological distress. Recent findings also indicate that distress tolerance influences alcohol outcomes via a positive reinforcement pathway. However, results concerning the as...
This study examined the association of social norms (i.e., descriptive and injunctive norms) and perceived risk with alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use in a sample of 378 Argentinean adolescents (60.3% girls, mean age 15.26 [SD = 1.26]). We conducted descriptive, correlation, and multivariate (i.e., hierarchical regression) analyses to describe su...
Introduction
Use of Social networking sites (SNSs) is a highly prevalent behavior worldwide and, for some individuals, its use can turn maladaptive. There has been growing interest to identify which variables are associated with problematic use of SNSs. Aim
The present study cross-sectionally examined whether the associations between different feat...
Health measures instantiated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have imposed significant constraints for the population and impacted on drinking habits and mental health. This study longitudinally compared changes in alcohol consumption before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and the impact of sociodemographic and mental health variables on such chang...
Background: We have reported induction of ∆FosB in adolescent rats that drank less ethanol than adults yet exhibited a progressive increase in ethanol intake.Objective: To test the hypothesis that an escalating pattern of ethanol exposure is more effective to induce ∆FosB expression [at prelimbic cortex (PrL), nucleus accumbens core and shell, stri...
Objective:
Normative perceptions have been shown to mediate the effect of personality traits on cannabis outcomes. We examined descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and the role of cannabis in college life as possible mediators of the association between impulsivity-related traits (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, sensation seeking, persev...
Contributing to the advancement of alcohol research globally.
Objectives:
This study aimed to analyse how the health crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic affected psychoactive substance consumption in Uruguay.
Methods:
An online survey was answered by 1,916 Uruguayan citizens between March and April 2020 regarding psychoactive substance use before and after the instauration of a recommended quarant...
Novelty seems to reduce the persistence of aversive memories and to modulate frustration responses, yet much less is known on how this treatment affects memories lacking hedonic or emotional content. The present study analyzed how a 5-min exposure to a novel open field modulated the expression of a spatial recognition memory. Experiment 1 indicated...
Se analizó la correspondencia entre estimaciones de consumo de alcohol obtenidas mediante mediciones retrospectivas (Cuestionario de Consumo de Alcohol —CCA—) y un Diario de Consumo. Participaron 134 jóvenes de la ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina (M edad = 23,31, DE = 3,18) que reportaron diariamente y por 60 días su consumo de alcohol. Al final del pr...
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Underage drinking is associated with negative consequences, including alterations in brain development that translate into poor cognitive functioning. Personality traits linked to drinking include impulsivity, sensation seeking and risk taking, yet there is a scarcity of studies that analyzed these associations in early adolesce...
Background: Substance use and the association between substance-related variables and outcomes seem to be context dependent. We employed Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a person-centered approach, to identify distinct subpopulations based on contexts of marijuana use. We also examined whether the resulting classes differ in a set of marijuana-related...
Background: The Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire [MACQ] assesses marijuana-related problems. This 8-factor (50-items) measure covers a broad array of multiple dimensions encompassing 50 negative consequences of gradient severity that are particularly relevant in the context of college. The present study aimed to validate the Spanish version of...
Recent frameworks in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral neurology underscore interoceptive priors as core modulators of negative emotions. However, the field lacks experimental designs manipulating the priming of emotions via interoception and exploring their multimodal signatures in neurodegenerative models. Here, we designed a novel task that...
Objetivos. Se analizó el desarrollo de tolerancia aguda a los efectos del alcohol (dosis = 0.08%) sobre la capacidad de conducción de automotor – medida con un simulador -- y los efectos de esta dosis de alcohol sobre inhibición de respuesta en curso y procesos atencionales. Metodología. Los participantes (n = 56, edad= 22± 2.92 años) fueron distri...
Research suggests that addictive traits are indeed heritable, but very few preclinical studies have explored transgenerational effects of paternal alcohol exposure. The present study addressed this gap in knowledge. We explored if offspring of ethanol exposed sires would be more likely to accept ethanol than descendants of water-exposed and control...
Los cuadros depresivos en humanos cursan con significativas alteraciones en la memoria espacial. Este trabajo estudió esta función en un modelo animal de depresión. Ratas Wistar (n=28), machos y hembras, fueron administradas con reserpina (0.0 o 1.0 mg/kg/cada 2 días por cuatro días). Luego del tratamiento se evaluó la función motora a través de la...
Rationale
Serotonin (5-HT) plays an important role in the organization of the central nervous system and in the development of social interaction deficits and psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and addiction disorders. Notably, disruption of the 5-HT system during sensitive periods of development exerts long-term consequences, in...
Validation of the Spanish version of the brief UPPS-P Impulsivity Scale for children and adolescents (BUPPS-P NA)Abstract: The Scale of Impulsivity for Children and Adolescents (UPPS-P NA) is a self-report instrument that assesses the impulsivity trait in children and adolescents. However, the UPPS-P NA does not have a short version in Spanish. The...
Aims
The present study examined which types of alcohol protective behavioral strategies ([PBSs], Manner of Drinking [MOD] strategies, Serious Harm Reduction [SHR] or Limiting/Stopping Drinking strategies [LSD]) mediate the effects of a comprehensive number of distal antecedents on alcohol drinking quantity and alcohol-related negative consequences....
Objective:
Neurological nosology, based on categorical systems, has largely ignored dimensional aspects of neurocognitive impairments. Transdiagnostic dimensional approaches of interoception (the sensing of visceral signals) may improve the descriptions of cross-pathological symptoms at behavioral, electrophysiological, and anatomical levels. Alte...
La previa (i.e., el consumo de alcohol antes de asistir al evento de la salida en el que puede, o no, consumirse más alcohol) incrementa marcadamente el riesgo de experimentar consecuencias negativas asociadas al consumo de alcohol. Aunque el consumo de alcohol es muy prevalente entre los adolescentes argentinos, son escasos los trabajos centrados...
La previa (i.e., el consumo de alcohol antes de asistir al evento de la salida en el que puede, o no, consumirse más alcohol) incrementa marcadamente el riesgo de experimentar consecuencias negativas asociadas al consumo de alcohol. Aunque el consumo de alcohol es muy prevalente entre los adolescentes argentinos, son escasos los trabajos centrados...
Background
Discriminating between adolescents who will eventually have ethanol use problems from those who do not is important. Environmental enrichment is a promising approach to reduce drug-related problems, but its impact on ethanol’s effects and intake is being scrutinized. Objective: We tested the effects of environmental enrichment on ethanol...
Background
Ethanol use during adolescence is a significant health problem, yet the pharmacological treatments to reduce adolescent binge drinking are scarce. The present study assessed, in male and female adolescent Wistar rats, if the sigma-1 receptor (S1-R) antagonists S1RA or BD-1063 disrupted ethanol drinking.
Methods
Three times a week, for t...
Alcohol (ethanol) use is almost normative by late adolescence, in most western countries. It is important to identify factors that distinguish those who progress from alcohol initiation to sustained use of the drug, from those that keep a controlled pattern of drinking. The factors precipitating this transition may change across development. This s...
Underage alcohol use is an important health concern. Drinking behaviors are prevalent among Argentinean children/adolescents, with about 60% of drinkers exhibiting first contact with alcohol by the age of 15 or before. The present study aimed at identifying the prospective role of risk taking and trait-like impulsivity on drinking patterns in Argen...
Heavy episodic drinking (HED) is highly prevalent in college students. In Argentina, there is a notable lack of longitudinal studies examining drinking trajectories. The present study identified HED trajectories in Argentinean college students during the first 3 years of college (seven waves) and examined the association between risk factors for al...
Esta revisión, narrativa y no sistemática, repasa datos y tendencias sobre la prevalencia del consumo de alcohol en niños y adolescentes, con foco en trabajos de la región sur de América Latina; asimismo, describimos algunos factores, y la investigación asociada que los sustenta, que regulan el consumo de alcohol, particularmente en niños y adolesc...
Este libro tiene, como objetivo principal, ayudar a todo aquel que quiera implementar un programa de prevención de consumo de alcohol basado en preceptos de normas sociales y/o behavioral insights. Como veremos en los capítulos subsiguientes, este tipo de abordaje preventivo es marcadamente diferentes de los abordajes más tradicionales, basados en...
The present study assessed the effects of ethanol exposure during adolescence or adulthood. We exposed Wistar rats, males or females, to self-administered 8–10% (v/v) ethanol (BINGE group) during the first 2 h of the dark cycle, three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) during postnatal days (PDs) 32–54 or 72–94 (adolescent and adults, res...
Historically, the roots of alcoholism have been linked to either environment or heredity. However, the interaction between these factors is still largely unexplored. The evidence supports a link between alcohol consumption and the endogenous opioid system. We here studied the opioid genes expression in male and female Wistar rats derived from a sho...
Questions
Questions (6)
I am analyzing a study with several generations.of high- and low- ethanol consumer rats, thanks
Today I was rehearsing a talk and, when describing the mesocorticolombic pathway, said that A10 DA neurons receive inputs from GABAergic ands DYNorphenergic neurons. One of my students asked me if it was possible that a single neuron has receptors for more than one transmitter. I said yes, without doubts, but later began to ask myself if that is indeed the case. I am pretty sure that is the case, as one of the duties of neurons is to integrate infomation and "decide" whether or not to fire, but further input would be helpful. Thanks
Delta-fos-b, the truncated form of fosB, is accumulated after stimulation with drugs of abuse, among other stimulus. Manipulation of its levels has been made, to my klnowedge, via transgenci mice or viral vectors. I was wondering if there is a way to pharmacologically inhibit its acumulation. Thanks
I always had doubts if non-US scientists working outside the US can be PIs or Co-PIs in NIH grants, and was not able to find an answer in their site. Thanks
