About

Amanda L Elton, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in neuroscience from The College of William and Mary, a master's degree in pharmacology from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in clinical and translational sciences from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Her scientific training continued at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was awarded a K01 research career development award from NIAAA to study the neural correlates of risk for alcohol use disorder. Dr. Elton's research interests include elucidating the effects of early life stress, heritable risk, and substance use on neurocognitive processes relevant for addiction and other psychopathologies, utilizing neuroimaging and behavioral methods. Her work focuses on neurocognitive aspects of addiction such as discounting of delayed rewards, response inhibition, sustained attention, and attentional bias towards rewards and drug cues. She applies innovative functional neuroimaging techniques to examine how activity and connectivity of brain networks support addiction-related behaviors, aiming to inform treatment and prevention strategies. Her recent research includes longitudinal studies on the neurocognitive mechanisms of risk and resilience for alcohol use disorder, with particular attention to early life stress and genetic factors, as well as sex differences. Dr. Elton also investigates neurocognitive markers of addiction risk using large datasets like the ABCD study, and her work involves combining neuroimaging, behavioral, and pharmacological approaches to better understand addiction vulnerability and resilience.

Research topics

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Biology
• Cognitive psychology

Selected publications

• Benzodiazepines at the crossroads: navigating therapeutic promise and perils of misuse

  Annals of General Psychiatry · 2026-02-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are a widely prescribed class of psychoactive drugs known for their rapid anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, and sedative effects. Introduced as safer alternatives to barbiturates, BZDs quickly gained popularity across clinical settings but have since become a subject of public health concern due to rising rates of misuse, dependence, and overdose, particularly when co-administered with opioids. This narrative review explores the historical development, pharmacologic mechanisms, clinical indications, and adverse outcomes associated with BZD use, while highlighting emerging areas of research such as pharmacogenetics (PGx) and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). BZDs act as positive allosteric modulators of the GABAA receptor, enhancing inhibitory neurotransmission. This mechanism underlies both their therapeutic efficacy and their potential for physiological dependence and misuse. Clinical applications span acute anxiety, insomnia, seizure management, and alcohol withdrawal; however, long-term use carries significant risks including cognitive decline, fall-related injuries, paradoxical excitation, and withdrawal syndromes. Reinforcement and neuroadaptation processes within the mesolimbic dopamine system contribute to BZD addiction, especially with chronic exposure. Regulatory responses include Schedule IV classification under the Controlled Substances Act and FDA black box warnings. Despite declining prescription rates in recent years, misuse, including nonmedical use and use of illicit designer BZDs, remains prevalent, especially among older adults and those with comorbid psychiatric or substance use disorders. Pharmacogenomic studies have identified genetic polymorphisms in hepatic enzymes (e.g., Cyp2c19 and Cyp3a4) and GABAA receptor subunits (e.g. Gabra2) that may influence BZD metabolism, efficacy, and addiction vulnerability, suggesting potential for personalized medicine approaches. In conclusion, the dual nature of BZDs, as essential tools in acute care and potential contributors to substance use disorders, demands a balanced, evidence-informed approach. Continued research, improved prescriber education, and integration of genetic insights into clinical care may help mitigate harm while preserving therapeutic benefit.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neural Markers of Emotion Reactivity and Regulation Before and After a Targeted Social Rejection: Differences Among Girls With and Without Suicidal Ideation and Behavior Histories

  UNC Libraries · 2026-03-25

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Intertemporal Decision‐Making, Nucleus Accumbens Activation, and Alcohol Use Trajectories in Young Adults With a Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder

  Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  INTRODUCTION: A family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with increased personal risk for alcohol misuse and AUD. Family history of AUD is also related to increased impulsivity as measured by delay discounting tasks, representing a potential mechanistic link between family history and alcohol misuse. Delay discounting tasks assess individual differences in preferences for smaller, immediate versus larger, delayed rewards, the former being linked to substance misuse. Decision-making on such tasks is underpinned by multiple neural systems, including those supporting reward valuation, cognitive control, and future-oriented thinking. We hypothesized that family history of AUD would be associated with differences in one or more neural systems related to delay discounting, with differences relating to increases in alcohol misuse in young adulthood. METHODS: We tested 163 first-year college students (105 females, ages 18-19) with varying levels of familial risk for AUD on a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) delay discounting task. Alcohol misuse was self-reported at baseline and in 3-yearly follow-up surveys using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Change in alcohol misuse was modeled using a latent growth model, and we examined mediation between family history and alcohol misuse trajectory (AUDIT intercept and slope) through functional activation of brain regions implicated in reward valuation (nucleus accumbens), cognitive control (middle frontal gyrus), and future-oriented thinking (hippocampus). RESULTS: Family history of AUD was associated with greater nucleus accumbens activation (β = 0.286, SE = 0.117, p = 0.014), which in turn predicted a steeper AUDIT slope (β = 0.513, SE = 0.162, p = 0.002). No other mediators were significant. DISCUSSION: Our results demonstrate that nucleus accumbens function may be a key mechanism by which family history increases risk for alcohol misuse and AUD.

  PublisherDOI

• Perceived Racism, Brain Development, and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: Findings From the ABCD Study

  Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · 2025-04-11 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Delay Discounting, Nucleus Accumbens Activation, and Alcohol Use Trajectories in Young Adults with a Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder

  medRxiv · 2025-09-04

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A family history (FH) of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with increased personal risk for alcohol misuse and AUD. FH is also related to increased impulsivity as evidenced by performance on delay discounting tasks, representing a potential mechanistic link between FH and alcohol misuse. Delay discounting tasks assess individual differences in preferences for smaller, immediate versus larger, delayed rewards, the former being linked to substance misuse. Decision-making on such tasks is underpinned by multiple neural systems, including those supporting reward valuation, cognitive control, and future-oriented thinking. We hypothesized that FH would be associated with differences in one or more neural systems related to delay discounting, with these differences being related to increases in alcohol misuse in young adulthood. We tested 163 first-year college students (ages 18-19) with varying levels of familial risk for AUD on an fMRI delay discounting task. Alcohol misuse was self-reported at baseline and in three yearly follow-up surveys using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Alcohol misuse was modeled using a latent growth model, and we examined mediation between FH and alcohol misuse trajectory (AUDIT intercept and slope) through functional activation of brain regions implicated in reward valuation (nucleus accumbens), cognitive control (middle frontal gyrus), and future-oriented thinking (hippocampus). FH was associated with greater activation of the nucleus accumbens, which in turn predicted a steeper AUDIT slope. No other mediators were significant. Our results demonstrate that nucleus accumbens function may be a key mechanism by which FH increases risk for alcohol misuse and AUD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An investigation of multimodal predictors of adolescent alcohol initiation

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2024-11-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The independent and joint effect of socioeconomic status and Multiracial status on the prevalence and frequency of substance use and depression among U.S. adolescents

  Addictive Behaviors · 2024-01-04 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  AIM: While the United States is becoming increasingly Multiracial, much is still unknown about the behavioral health of these growing new generations of Multiracial Americans. To narrow this research gap, this study investigated the prevalence/frequency of substance use and major depressive episodes [MDE] among non-Hispanic Multiracial [NHM] adolescents compared to their non-Hispanic White [NHW] counterparts and whether racial differences vary by socioeconomic status. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 3,645 NHM and 34,776 NHW adolescents aged 12-17). Average Marginal Effects derived from logistic regression and negative binomial regression were used to examine (1) differences in six outcomes (past-month use of alcohol, cannabis, or drugs other than cannabis [DOTC], past-year MDE, and the frequency of alcohol and cannabis use among past-month users) by Multiracial status; (2) the moderation effect of family income on these associations. RESULTS: Compared to high-income NHW adolescents, high-income NHM adolescents reported significantly higher prevalence of past-month cannabis and DOTC use, and past-year MDE. No racial differences were observed at other income levels. Furthermore, moderation analyses indicated that the effect of Multiracial status on MDE was larger in the highest income group compared to the lowest income group. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that NHM adolescents, particularly those from high income families, exhibit increased prevalence of drug use and depression than NHW adolescents. As the US becomes more diverse, there is a need to further examine the social and structural factors driving the identified racial differences.

  PublisherDOI

• Altered Cortico-Subcortical Network After Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Mediates Behavioral Deficits in Flexible Decision-Making

  UNC Libraries · 2024-07-27

  articleOpen access

  Behavioral flexibility, the ability to modify behavior according to changing conditions, is essential to optimize decision-making. Deficits in behavioral flexibility that persist into adulthood are one consequence of adolescent alcohol exposure, and another is decreased functional connectivity in brain structures involved in decision-making; however, a link between these two outcomes has not been established. We assessed effects of adolescent alcohol and sex on both Pavlovian and instrumental behaviors and resting-state functional connectivity MRI in adult animals to determine associations between behavioral flexibility and resting-state functional connectivity. Alcohol exposure impaired attentional set reversals and decreased functional connectivity among cortical and subcortical regions-of-interest that underlie flexible behavior. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that adolescent alcohol-induced reductions in functional connectivity within a subnetwork of affected brain regions statistically mediated errors committed during reversal learning. These results provide a novel link between persistent reductions in brain functional connectivity and deficits in behavioral flexibility resulting from adolescent alcohol exposure.

  PublisherDOI

• The effects of adverse life events on brain development in the ABCD study®: a propensity-weighted analysis

  Molecular Psychiatry · 2024-11-22 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Socioeconomic Status Differences in U.S. Multiracial Adolescents’ Substance Use and Mental Health Problems

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2024-07-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• The neural mechanisms of risk for alcohol use disorder among college students

  NIH · $308k · 2022–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Charlotte A. Boettiger

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  43 shared

• Wei Gao

  Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

  20 shared

• Sarael Alcauter

  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

  14 shared

• Clinton D. Kilts

  University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

  10 shared

• Woomi Ban

  9 shared

• Yen‐Yu Ian Shih

  9 shared

• Donita L. Robinson

  9 shared

• Sung‐Ho Lee

  Louisiana State University in Shreveport

  9 shared