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Impulsivity and neuroticism share distinct functional connectivity signatures with alcohol-use risk in youth

Plain-English AddictionTube research summary with source link, DOI, key finding, and recovery relevance.

Molecular Psychiatry • 05 Sept 2025 • Research

alcoholbrain sciencegenetics

Research focus

This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, brain science, genetics. The source abstract begins by describing: “Increases in impulsivity and negative affect (e.g., neuroticism) are common during adolescence and are both associated with risk for alcohol-use initiation and other risk behaviors.”

Key finding: Consistent with current equifinality-based conceptions of development, few connections predicted both impulsivity and neuroticism, indicating that the neural signatures of these two traits are relatively distinct despite both being implicated in alcohol-use risk and a wide array of behaviors.

Why this may help: This may help explain why addiction can involve brain, behavior, mental health, craving, relapse, or treatment factors rather than simple willpower alone. It should be read as research information, not personal medical advice.

Article details

Authors: Annie Cheng, Sarah Lichenstein, Sarah W. Yip

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03196-6

Open access: Open Access

Open original source article

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