Just to make sure everybody understands: ALCOHOL DOES EFFECT THE DEVELOPING BRAIN. It amazes me when people, usually young people, want to debate this fact. OF COURSE alcohol can have an effect on brain development. Why do you think the experts tell pregnant women to stop drinking when they are pregnant...because it can impact the fetus.
Two strong factors that determine how much effect alcohol (and other drugs) will have on the developing brain are: (1) age that the youth starts drinking and (2) the amount & frequency of the drinking. Research shows that youth who start drinking at the age of 14 or younger are 4 times more likely to become alcohol dependent as those who begin drinking at the age of 20 or older. Moreover, instead of "outgrowing" the party days, young abusers are significantly more likely to have drinking problems as adults.
The two main brain areas that most susceptible to damage are the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Looking specifically at the hippocampus, drinking can result in a small hippocampi, which is the area of the brain that handles many types of memory and learning. Why is this significant? Consider a child's capacity to learn and remember if they have a deficiency in this area. Adolescent drinkers have shown to perform worse on vocabulary tests where verbal & nonverbal information recall was most heavily affected. This area suffers the worst alcohol-related brain damage.
Secondly, the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is considered the CEO of the brain, can also suffer severe changes that are not for the good. The importance of this? The PFC is responsible for decision making, logical processing, impulse control, and evaluating consequences. All skills that are greatly needed during adolescent development. Damage from alcohol can be long-term and irreversible.
In binge drinking [defined as 5 or more drinks in a row at least once in the past 2 weeks], the frontal cortex (i.e. PFC) responsible for rational thought and the hippocampus (controls memory) are shut down. This obliterates any consciousness, thus producing a state where the brain is unable to control the impulses of drunk teenagers. "Crazy things" can and do happen. This can also explain why during a binge, remembering the crazy things that did happen are fuzzy to say the least. In addition, binge drinking, the most popular form of alcohol abuse in adolescents, may serve as self-medication to cover a range of issues they may face.
Heavy drinking, which can encompass binge drinking, causes the brain's reward system to be altered where the brain begins to depend on the alcohol as the stimulus that increases the amount of dopamine. The brain produces a natural level of dopamine that helps us pay attention to what is new, serves as a motivator, and of course, makes us feel good. When drinking the dopamine level increases resulting in that "happy buzz" feeling. With continued drinking, the brain produces less "natural dopamine" because of the constant supply of the "artificial dopamine" that the alcohol produces. Maintaining this high level of dopamine can cause a person to seek more alcohol, thus resulting in dependency or addiction.
As always, please email me if you would the citations for the research noted above.
