Brain anatomical covariation patterns linked to binge drinking and age at first full drink

Highlights • We identified a reproducible cortical and subcortical brain structural covariation pattern.• A novel pattern discovery method Joint and Individual Variance Explained (JIVE) was used.• The cortical and subcortical structural covariation pattern is related to alcohol use initiation.• The identified pattern is dominated by covariation among brainstem, thalamus and PFC.• A thalamic-PFC-brainstem circuitry might be related to alcohol use initiation.