Check out this answer from Consensus:
The collective findings from multiple studies indicate that alcohol consumption during adolescence negatively affects brain development. This includes abnormal gray and white matter development, impaired cognitive functioning, and altered neural activity. These changes can have long-lasting effects, increasing the risk of developing alcohol use disorder and other cognitive and behavioral issues in adulthood. Therefore, it is advisable for teenagers to avoid alcohol to support healthy brain development.
The impact of alcohol consumption on brain development in teenagers is a critical area of research, given the ongoing neurodevelopment during adolescence. This period is marked by significant changes in brain structure and function, making it potentially vulnerable to the effects of alcohol.
Key Insights
- Gray Matter Development:
- White Matter Development:
- Cognitive Functioning:
- Neural Activity:
- Risk of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD):
- Long-term Effects:
Does alcohol negatively affect brain development in teenagers?
Judith Grisel has answered Likely
An expert from Bucknell University in Neuroscience
There is a lot of research on this topic. In humans, because we can’t randomly assign some adolescents to drink and others not to, the research is correlational. What this large body of research shows is that early binge drinking (i.e., drinking to get drunk) greatly increases the risk for developing alcoholism or other drug use disorders. This is likely because it alters brain development. One study showed that heavy drinking adolescents lose cortical gray and white matter (brain cells and their projections) at rates much higher than normal (there is some natural pruning during adolescence; Am J Psychiatry 2015; 172:531–542; doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2015. 14101249). This study looked at lots of brain regions and the loss was especially profound in the frontal and temporal lobes, responsible for abstract reasoning and learning and memory). There is a good review of much of this research here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104956/. This paper summarizes reductions in brain volume, cortical thickness, circuitry as well as the functional implications of these changes. If this isn’t enough, a recent paper demonstrated a link between passing out from alcohol (even one time) and developing dementia (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770285).
Does alcohol negatively affect brain development in teenagers?
Annerine Roos has answered Near Certain
An expert from Stellenbosch University in Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Child Development
Various research studies indicate negative outcomes in brain development that is evident during the teenage years. There may be conduct problems and difficulty to anticipate the consequences of actions; impulsivity; emotional dysregulation; and deficits in general cognitive ability, and specifically in executive function, that is, the ability to conduct tasks and follow through, and reasoning; and learning disabilites. A positive nurturing environment may have reduced negative outcomes.
Does alcohol negatively affect brain development in teenagers?
Richard L Bell has answered Near Certain
An expert from Indiana University School of Medicine in Behavioural Science, Genomics, Genetics, Neuroscience, Addiction
It is a given (i.e., not up to debate) that alcohol/ethanol has deleterious effects both on the brain and peripheral organs (peripheral organ dysfunction negatively affects the brain). These deleterious effects can, and do, occur during any, and all, stage(s) of development (prenatal, neonatal, postnatal, infant, juvenile, adolescence, emerging adulthood, adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood). The deleterious effects of alcohol on the brain during adolescence include disrupted levels of multiple neurotransmitter-, neuroimmune-, neuroplasticity-, and neurovascular-associated gene(s) and protein expression. Moreover, this disruption appears to be both brain-region and brain-subregion specific.
Does alcohol negatively affect brain development in teenagers?
Benjamin Boutrel has answered Extremely Unlikely
An expert from Lausanne University Hospital in Neurobiology, Addiction, Alcohol Use
One can question whether the minority of youngsters experiencing recreational drugs, including alcohol, and developing clinical symptoms of drug addiction and dependence, would have done so if they had first experienced drug and alcohol later in life, during adulthood. It is quite clear that the inability to control drug taking affects the most vulnerable individuals and worsens with recurring drug consumption. But would it worsen that bad in individuals with fully matured self-regulatory competence? The question is relevant but the answer quite tricky. Indeed, fully matured self-regulatory competence does not mean adulthood per se, since vulnerable (adult) individuals never meet this “standard”, in particular those long exposed to adverse events (Arnsten, 2015). Further, despite recent observations suggesting that a relative immaturity in frontal cortical neural systems (i.e. slower cortical thinning) may underlie the adolescent propensity for uninhibited risk taking and hazardous behaviors (Shawet al., 2011), converging preclinical and clinical studies do not support a simple model of frontal cortical immaturity (Bernheimet al., 2013). There is substantial evidence that adolescents engage in dangerous activities, including drug abuse, despite knowing and understanding the risks involved (Romeret al., 2017). Further, increase in sensation seeking during adolescence does not necessarily lead to long-lasting maladaptive behavior, unless it is accompanied by weak executive function, such as acting without thinking or an overwhelming desire for immediate reward. To summarize, the adolescent remains tempted as long as the development of executive functions including rational decision making, abstract reasoning and response inhibition is still ongoing (Dahl, 2008). And for those who never acquire this level of self-regulatory competence,the vulnerability to lose control over drug and alcohol remains, like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Meanwhile, substantial evidence demonstrated that heavy alcohol consumption weakens prefrontal networks, disrupts cognitive performance and exacerbates impulsivity (Soloffet al., 2000), making early chronic alcohol intoxication a royal gateway to alcoholism. The question as to whether the neurobiological abnormalities observed in alcoholic individuals reflect a predisposing cause for their addiction, or a consequence of their long-term exposure to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol remains difficult to address. A rational overview of the literature would suggest that the incapacity to control alcohol taking first affects the most vulnerable individuals and, second, worsens with recurring alcohol intoxication, but the debate remains open (Jadhav and Boutrel, 2019).