Welcome to the Neuro D-Tox Lab!

Welcome to the Neuro D-Tox, or Neuropsychology, Development, and Toxicology Lab at UC San Diego! An overarching goal of the lab is to identify ways for individuals to optimize their neurodevelopment. We focus on assessment and identifying prevention and intervention targets for substance use in adolescents and young adults. While the Neuro D-Tox lab's research has primarily focused on cannabis and alcohol use, due to the high comorbidity of substance use, we are also interested in substance use more broadly.  In addition, given the complex digital world in which we live, we investigate both the benefits and drawbacks of adolescent screen use. Our studies examine the impact of substances use and other related health behaviors on neurodevelopmental trajectories including brain development, cognitive functioning, and other brain-behavior relationships. These trajectories include mental health outcomes, environmental factors, sociocultural factors,  and other health behaviors, as these relationships are closely intertwined throughout emerging adulthood. We are also interested in mechanisms that drive neurodevelopmental changes. We strive to accurately capture information on substance use and behavioral patterns, and therefore use toxicological analysis of biosamples (e.g., hair, urine, blood) and passive sensing of behaviors in order to utilize objective measurement methods.  Finally, as our labs core values center around research that is inclusive and equitable, we conduct ethical research that is beneficial for all adolescents and young adults.  

Questions we hope to help address in the lab:

• What factors increase the likelihood of problematic cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine use in teens?

• What resiliency factors help teens cut back on substance use? What protective factors prevent negative brain-behavior relationships regardless of how much certain individuals use?

• Do THC and CBD concentration in biosamples reveal more specific and sensitive brain-behavior relationships than self-report? What about for other drugs?

• How does substance use method (e.g., vaping v. smoking v. edibles) relate to toxicological outcomes?

• What aspects of screen and smartphone use help socioemotional and neuropsychological development? When does it become harmful?

To address these areas, lab members use both primary and secondary datasets for analysis. Measures used include neurocognitive and neuropsychological assessments, neuroimaging (e.g., sMRI, DTI), self-reported clinical syndrome scales, semi-structured diagnostic interviews, and self-report questionnaires. We further leverage toxicological assessments (e.g., in hair, blood, oral fluid, or urine) to more carefully measure substance use, including identifying drug concentrations and contents (e.g., THC and CBD). For screen use, we use passive sensing of smartphone use within the ABCD dataset.