CDART - Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation (Project 1)

The current renewal application forthe Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation (CDART) consists of a core and four projects. The central integrated theme of the center is that reward seeking and inhibition are biologically-based personality constructs associated with drug abuse vulnerability and that these constructs are useful in the design of targeted drug abuse prevention messages. The Core will: (1) provide thematic scientific integration of the different projects around the constructs of reward seeking and inhibition; (2) create synergy across the four proposed projects and other ongoing projects on campus; (3) facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among basic and prevention sciences using both neurobehavioral and psychosocial levels of analysis; and (4) oversee the long-range goal of translating our basic research into practice. In Project I (Bardo, P1), a laboratory rat model will be used to determine if individual differences in reward seeking and inhibition are associated with stimulant drug self-administration and mesocorticolimbic cellular processes. In Project 2 (Kelly1 P1), human volunteers will be tested in a controlled laboratory environment to assess if individual differences in reward seeking and inhibition are associated with differences in drug reward and neural function as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRt) and electroencephalography (EEC). In Project 3 (Lynam, P1), a cohort of students transitioning from high school to college will be used to determine if individual differences in reward seeking and inhibition are associated with the initiation, escalation and/or cessation of drug use in a longitudinal design. In Project 4 (Zimmerman, P1), formative and experimental research will be conducted to determine if televised anti-drug public service announcements (PSAs) are differentially effective among individuals who vary in reward seeking and inhibition. Thus, all of the critical elements are now in place to assess at multiple levels of discipline (biomedicine, psychology and health communication) the role of reward seeking and inhibition in drug abuse vulnerability, with the long-term goat of improving the efficacy of anti-drug televised PSAs that are tailored specifically for at-risk youth transitioriing to adulthood.