Binging Alcohol Abuse Leads To Loss Of Working Memory In Teens

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Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 18 Jul 2011 - 9:00 PDT


Teenagers' brains are still developing during those years and binge drinking is a problem for many adolescents. A new study has shown damage to these youth's ability to perceive their environment or their surroundings at a critical time when their brains are still developing, making binge drinking a growing epidemic.

Susan F. Tapert, acting chief of psychology at the VA San Diego Healthcare System states:

"Even though adolescents might physically appear grown up, their brains are continuing to significantly develop and mature, particularly in frontal brain regions that are associated with higher-level thoughts, like planning and organization. Heavy alcohol use could interrupt normal brain cell growth during adolescence, particularly in these frontal brain regions, which could interfere with teens' ability to perform in school and sports, and could have long-lasting effects, even months after the teen uses."

It also appears young women may be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of excess alcohol consumption, the researchers said.

Spatial working memory is the ability to actively hold information in the mind needed to do complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning. Working memory tasks are those that require the goal-oriented active monitoring or manipulation of information or behaviors in the face of interfering processes and distractions.

The cognitive processes involved include the executive and attention control of short-term memory which provide for the interim integration, processing, disposal, and retrieval of information. Working memory is a theoretical concept central both to cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Researchers subjected 95 teenagers to neuropsychological testing, substance use interviews, and a spatial working memory tasking during a brain scan using functional MRI.

Teenage girls who were heavy drinkers had less brain activation in several areas their brains than other girls their age that didn't drink. Their male counterparts who drank excessively displayed some abnormality compared to their sober peers, but the difference between male drinkers and non-drinkers was less than among girls.

Edith V. Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine added:

"These findings remind us that adolescent boys and girls are biologically different and represent distinctive groups that require separate and parallel study."

The study authors suggested that hormonal or metabolic differences between boys and girls, or the fact that girls' brains develop up to two years earlier than boys, could account for these gender differences.

Localization of brain functions in humans has become much easier with the advent of brain imaging methods (PET and MRI). This research has confirmed that areas in the front of the brain are involved in working memory functions.

During the 1990s much debate has centered on the different functions of the ventrolateral (i.e., lower areas) and the dorsolateral (higher) areas of the PFC (prefrontal cortex). One view was that the dorsolateral areas are responsible for spatial working memory and the ventrolateral areas for non-spatial working memory. Another view proposed a functional distinction, arguing that ventrolateral areas are mostly involved in pure maintenance of information, whereas dorsolateral areas are more involved in tasks requiring some processing of the memorized material. The debate is not entirely resolved but most of the evidence supports the functional distinction.

Sources: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research and The European Journal of Neuroscience

Written by Sy Kraft
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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