Adolescence: Booze, Brains, and Behavior

Abstract

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2004 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, organized and chaired by Peter M. Monti and Fulton T. Crews. The presentations and presenters were (1) Introduction, by Peter M. Monti; (2) Adolescent Binge Drinking Causes Life-Long Changes in Brain, by Fulton T. Crews and Kim Nixon; (3) Functional Neuroimaging Studies in Human Adolescent Drinkers, by Susan F. Tapert; (4) Abnormal Emotional Reactivity as a Risk Factor for Alcoholism, by Robert Miranda, Jr.; (5) Alcohol-Induced Memory Impairments, Including Blackouts, and the Changing Adolescent Brain, by Aaron M. White and H. Scott Swartzwelder; and (6) Discussion, by Kenneth Sher.

Chronic tolerance to the social consequences of ethanol in adolescent and adult Sprague-Dawley rats

“…These brain regions are among those that undergo considerable remodeling during adolescence [1,15,16,18,35,37,48,49] and, hence are likely targets for contributing to the disruption in social preference following chronic adolescent exposure to ethanol. Indeed, there are a number of reports that ethanol-induced damage in these and other brain regions may be more pronounced during adolescence than in adulthood [5,22]. For instance, Crews et al [5] demonstrated that 4 days of "binge" exposure to high doses of ethanol (9-10 g/kg/day) produces cell death, which is more evident in adolescent than adult rats in a number of frontal-anterior brain regions.…”

The Role of Executive Control in Human Drug Addiction

“…Studies of high-risk populations (e.g., a family history of alcoholism) suggest impairments in frontal functioning are apparent prior to drug use exposure (Monti et al 2005;Schweinsburg et al 2005) and can predict later substance use (Deckel and Hesselbrock 1996; see also Ivanov et al 2008 for a review). Schweinsburg et al (2005) demonstrated that on a Go/No-go fMRI paradigm, adolescents with a positive family history of alcoholism demonstrated less inhibitory frontal response than those with no family history, despite similar task performance between groups.…”

Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Amplifies the Incentive Value of Reward-Predictive Cues Through Potentiation of Phasic Dopamine Signaling

“…Alcohol is the most commonly used substance by adolescents and a high percentage of consumption during this period occurs in bingeing or uncontrolled use (Witt, 2010). Importantly, an increasing number of studies have revealed that the adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to alcohol-induced functional changes (Crews et al, 2007;Guerri and Pascual 2010;Monti et al, 2005;Philpot et al, 2009;Schindler et al, 2014;Squeglia et al, 2012;Zeigler et al, 2005). Moreover, adolescent alcohol use increases the likelihood of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD) in adulthood (Blomeyer et al, 2013;Dawson et al, 2008;Hingson et al, 2006).…”