College of Medicine
Elton Lab
Led by Amanda Elton · Psychiatry
What we study
The Elton Lab studies how brain activity and attention affect addiction risk, using brain scans and behavioral tests. They explore how early stress, family history, and genetics influence alcohol use disorder.
What working here is like
- Computational
- Clinical
- Surveys & interviews
- Human participants
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Attentional Ability and Resilience to Alcohol Use Disorder: Neurocognitive Mechanisms
Investigating how childhood maltreatment, family history, and genetics affect brain function and addiction risk.
Early-Life Enrichment Protects against the Development of Alcohol Use Disorder in Young Adulthood
The lab examines how a supportive childhood home affects later alcohol problems, depression, and anxiety. The student analyzed survey data from 164 undergraduates over three years and found that higher HOME scores were linked to fewer alcohol‑use symptoms, lower depression, and lower self‑concept issues, but higher state anxiety.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 193
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Social Mistreatment Effect on Alcohol Misuse Trajectories Is Moderated by Subcortical Network Activation During Error Processing
2026 · Addiction Biology
Shows how social mistreatment affects alcohol misuse over time.
- Intertemporal Decision‐Making, Nucleus Accumbens Activation, and Alcohol Use Trajectories in Young Adults With a Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder
2026 · Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research
Tests whether family history of alcohol use disorder affects decision-making.
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- Benzodiazepines at the crossroads: navigating therapeutic promise and perils of misuse
2026 · Annals of General Psychiatry
Reviews benefits and risks of benzodiazepine use.
- Perceived Racism, Brain Development, and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: Findings From the ABCD Study
2025 · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- The effects of adverse life events on brain development in the ABCD study®: a propensity-weighted analysis
2024 · Molecular Psychiatry
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Amanda Elton hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.