Neural Mechanisms Underlying Nicotine and Alcohol Combinations

Summary

Nicotine and alcohol are frequently used together and their combined use contributes to more than half a million deaths each year, with more alcoholics dying from smoking-related diseases than from alcohol-related diseases. Using a new multi-modal MRI approach combined with data fusion, the investigators propose to study how nicotine modulates alcohol-induced changes in the function of brain circuits. The investigators hypotheses are: * functional connectivity (FC) in the reward network, containing components of the mesolimbic dopamine system, will be altered by alcohol, and additional increases in FC will be observed if nicotine is also present (e.g., additive effects). * co-administration of nicotine will counteract the effects of alcohol on FC in multiple brain networks, including visual, sensorimotor and motor brain circuits, that may be associated with the impairing effects of alcohol

Timeline

Start

2013-07

Primary completion

2015-12

Completion

2015-12

Drugs

Indications