The role of pandemic and individual vulnerability in longitudinal cohorts across the life span: refined models of neurosociobehavioral pathways into substance (ab)use?

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Tobias Banaschewski; Professorin Dr. Herta Flor; Professorin Dr. Frauke Nees; Privatdozent Dr. Olaf Reis; Dr. Emanuel Schwarz, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience ; Biological Psychiatry ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458246158

Individual decisions for risky behavior, such as substance consumption, are influenced by neurobehavioral microstates, including impulsivity or maladaptive stress reactivity. These decisions have, yet, also been attributed to socioaffective cues - from macrosocial norms and opportunities, including access routes or private space, to mesosocial factors, including closeness to consuming peers or amount of familial stress. The COVID-19 pandemic provoked many restrictions and changes in social functioning along differently equipped individuals in every age cohort, and we might need to refine previously identified normative and nonnormative risk-taking trajectories for substance use prediction. Capitalizing on existing longitudinal cohort studies (IMAGEN, ROLS, MARS) and cross-sectionally fitted high-resolution real-life momentary data (IMAC-Mind), where COVID-19-related health/sociobehavioral assessments have been added during the lockdown, we will perform multivariate analyses estimating the stability of measures under COVID-19 and relations over time. We will asses new brain and daily, sensor-based behavioral data in the samples to capture risk-taking/perceptions, longitudinally after-lockdown, and key features of affect regulation (mindfulness) and cross-validate age data. Factors established as protective classifiers might weaken or strengthen and new key associations of mechanisms might exhibit, including even stronger gender differences. We may gain valuable insight into pandemic health consequences in sensible periods along the life span.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants