Summary: A review in Frontiers in Psychology links adolescent binge drinking to reductions in brain regions responsible for memory, learning, language and attention.
Source: Frontiers.
Heavy alcohol consumption or binge drinking during adolescence and young adulthood changes brain structure and function, reduces cognitive performance, and increases the risk of later alcohol use disorder.
Alcohol is deeply embedded in many social and cultural celebrations worldwide. Although the health risks of alcohol are well known—especially with heavy use—many young people still engage in episodic heavy drinking without fully appreciating the potential long-term consequences. Binge drinking is prevalent during adolescence: nearly 25% of U.S. high school seniors reported having been drunk in the past 30 days, illustrating how common high-volume drinking episodes are in this age group.
This issue was examined in a focused review published in Frontiers in Psychology by Anita Cservenka, an assistant professor at Oregon State University, and colleagues. The review compiles neuroimaging and behavioral studies that investigate how binge and heavy drinking affect the still-developing adolescent and young adult brain.
Adolescence is a developmental period marked by continued biological maturation and refinement of psychosocial behaviors. Because drinking large quantities of alcohol during this time may interfere with neural development, the authors aimed to summarize existing evidence on structural and functional brain changes associated with binge and heavy drinking and the consequences for cognition.
In the review, binge or heavy episodic drinking is defined as consuming four or more standard drinks within a two-hour period for females and five or more drinks for males. The review identifies key cognitive and neural domains examined across studies and highlights patterns that emerge from neuroimaging data.
The authors examined six cognitive and neural systems most commonly affected by heavy drinking: response inhibition, working memory, verbal learning and memory, decision making and reward processing, alcohol cue reactivity, and socio-cognitive/socio-emotional processing. Across these domains, patterns of altered brain structure and activity were identified in young binge or heavy drinkers.
Evidence from structural MRI studies shows that adolescents and young adults who engage in binge or heavy drinking frequently exhibit thinner cortex and lower gray matter volume in regions such as the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum, along with disruptions in white matter development. These structural changes are important because the prefrontal cortex supports executive functions—like planning, impulse control, and attention—which continue to mature well into young adulthood.
Functional MRI studies reveal that during tasks involving working memory, verbal learning, and inhibitory control, binge and heavy-drinking youth often show increased activity in fronto-parietal networks compared with light or non-drinkers. This hyperactivity may reflect compensatory neural recruitment: the brain working harder to achieve the same behavioral performance. In tasks that probe responses to alcohol-related cues, heavy drinkers typically show heightened activation in mesocorticolimbic regions (for example, the striatum, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala), consistent with greater motivational salience of alcohol cues.
Findings on risky decision-making are mixed across studies, likely because of differences in task design and analytic approaches. Nonetheless, the overall pattern of structural thinning, attenuated white matter development, and altered task-related brain responses raises concern that heavy alcohol exposure during a sensitive developmental window can disrupt normal neural maturation.
These brain alterations observed in adolescent and young adult binge drinkers may not be transient. The authors note that neurotoxic effects from repeated heavy alcohol exposure during a highly plastic period could trigger neural reorganization that increases the likelihood of progressing to an alcohol use disorder later in life. For this reason, continued public education about the risks of binge drinking and focused longitudinal research are critical.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology.
Original research: The review summarizes findings from the open-access article “The Burden of Binge and Heavy Drinking on the Brain: Effects on Adolescent and Young Adult Neural Structure and Function” by Anita Cservenka and Ty Brumback, published online June 30, 2017 (doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01111).
The Burden of Binge and Heavy Drinking on the Brain: Effects on Adolescent and Young Adult Neural Structure and Function
Introduction: Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of continued biological and psychosocial maturation. Consuming large quantities of alcohol during this developmental window may produce harmful effects on neural development and cognition. This mini review highlights neuroimaging research that has specifically examined the impact of binge and heavy drinking on adolescent and young adult brain structure and function.
Methods: The review considers cross-sectional and longitudinal neuroimaging studies of young binge and heavy drinkers, focusing on brain structure (gray and white matter volume, cortical thickness, white matter microstructure) and functional responses measured with fMRI.
Results: Binge and heavy-drinking adolescents and young adults show systematically thinner cortex and lower gray matter volume in prefrontal and cerebellar regions, along with attenuated white matter development. Functionally, these individuals often exhibit elevated brain activity in fronto-parietal regions during working memory, verbal learning, and inhibitory control tasks. Compared with light drinkers, heavy drinkers also show increased neural responses to alcohol cues in mesocorticolimbic areas including the striatum, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. Results for risky decision-making are mixed, likely due to variability in tasks and analysis methods.
Conclusions: Altered neural structure and activity in binge and heavy-drinking youth may reflect neurotoxic effects of consuming large amounts of alcohol during a critical neurodevelopmental period. These changes could promote neural reorganization and increase the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder.