The following is a taken from the
American Medical Association:
www.ama-assn.org

The adolescent brain

The brain goes through dynamic change during adolescence, and alcohol can seriously damage long- and short-term growth processes. Frontal lobe development and the refinement of pathways and connections continue until age 16, and a high rate of energy is used as the brain matures until age 20. Damage from alcohol at this time can be long-term and irreversible. In addition, short-term or moderate drinking impairs learning and memory far more in youth than adults. Adolescents need only drink half as much to suffer the same negative effects.

Drinkers vs. non-drinkers: research findings

• Adolescent drinkers scored worse than non-users on vocabulary, general information, memory, memory retrieval and at least three other tests
• Verbal and nonverbal information recall was most heavily affected, with a 10 percent performance decrease in alcohol users
• Significant neuropsychological deficits exist in early to middle adolescents (ages 15 and 16) with histories of extensive alcohol use
• Adolescent drinkers perform worse in school, are more likely to fall behind and have an increased risk of social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts and violence
• Alcohol affects the sleep cycle, resulting in impaired learning and memory as well as disrupted release of hormones necessary for growth and maturation
• Alcohol use increases risk of stroke among young drinkers

Adverse effects of alcohol on the brain: research findings
Youth who drink can have a significant reduction in learning and memory, and teen alcohol users are most susceptible to damaging two key brain areas that are undergoing dramatic changes in adolescence:

• The hippocampus handles many types of memory and learning and suffers from the worst alcohol-related brain damage in teens. Those who had been drinking more and for longer had significantly smaller hippocampi (10 percent).
• The prefrontal area (behind the forehead) undergoes the most change during adolescence. Researchers found that adolescent drinking could cause severe changes in this area and others, which play an important role in forming adult personality and behavior and is often called the CEO of the brain.

Lasting implications
Compared to students who drink moderately or not at all, frequent drinkers may never be able to catch up in adulthood, since alcohol inhibits systems crucial for storing new information as long-term memories and makes it difficult to immediately remember what was just learned.

Additionally, those who binge once a week or increase their drinking from age 18 to 24 may have problems attaining the goals of young adulthood—marriage, educational attainment, employment, and financial independence. And rather than "outgrowing" alcohol use, young abusers are significantly more likely to have drinking problems as adults.

The Impact of Alcohol on the Brain

The following information is taken directly from www.madd.org

WHY WE WORRY ABOUT CHILDREN USING ALCOHOL : Exposure to substances that inhibit cell growth has some impact on the adult brain, but these same substances can have a devastating effect on the developing brain.

RANDOM HAVOC:  Most other drugs are predictable; they have specific receptors in the brain.  We know which receptors they will use, and therefore, we can predict their impact on the neural function in specific regions of the brain.  Alcohol, on the other hand, doesn't have a specific receptor in the brain.  It selects receptors at random, acting on one receptor in one part of the brain, and on a different receptor in another part of the brain.  It is also random in its behavior in different brains, affecting different people differently.

THE GREAT IMPOSTOR WITH A PASS-KEY: Alcohol can choose any receptor it wants because it has a "pass key."  It combines with water molecules that form part of the receptors; changing the shape of the receptors so it can enter, virtually at will…altering the brains processes "at-will."

GLOBAL HAVOC:   Alcohol affects most of the brain, compromising memory, abstract thinking, problem solving, attention and concentration... and altering motivation, emotions, awareness, thinking, movement, breathing, consciousness, and more.

PRANKSTER:   Alcohol plugs into the brain's massive network of switches activate and deactivate neural functioning and turns brain cells on or off.  It affects channels in the brain cell membranes that permit calcium and other chemicals to provide energy to electrically fire off messages to other cells. No other drug turns brain cells on and off at the rate alcohol does.

INTERCEPTOR:  Alcohol seeps directly into neurons to prevent the messages that a neuron receives from being translated into instructions inside the cell.

TRICKSTER:  Alcohol combines with lipids (fat molecules) that form channels in the surfaces of brain cell membranes, temporarily changing their structure and function.

THIEF: Alcohol reduces the level of serotonin in the brain.  Serotonin is known as the brain's peacekeeper, assisting in learning and problem solving.  It enables our drives to live in harmony.  It is connected to cells in every part of the brain, the only neurotransmitter that is.  If not impeded by alcohol (or other drugs that act on serotonin receptors), the brain received gentle, rhythmic pulses of serotonin.  One of its most important roles is to act as a brake on impulses.  Too much or too little can affect cognitive and emotional functioning.

The Developing Brain: Birth through mid 20's
The following information is taken directly Mothers Against Drug Driving (MADD). Protecting You/Protecting Me, curriculum available through MADD, focuses on preventing damage to the developing brain from age 12 to the mid 20's, when the exposure to alcohol is the greatest among American teens.

• The Brain Continues to develop well into a persons mid 20's.  At birth roughly 40% of the brain cells are connected.
• Before the age of 10, the brain is developing the basic capacities of survival - vision, speech, memory, emotions, attention, concentration, and fine and gross motor skills.
• In the pre-teen years the brain is engaged in managing puberty, learning to think abstractly and forming more sophisticated relationships.
• In the last few years - through a person's mid 20's - the brain is involved in developing self-awareness, highly complex interpersonal relationships, highly complex abstract thinking and spirituality, and the ability to plan, make complex judgments - including moral judgments, creating and problem solving…moving beyond the basics toward maturity.
• From 12 to the mid 20's, the years in which American teens are the most exposed to alcohol, three critical periods of development take place, each accompanied by a spurt of neural (dendrite) growth:
• Level I Abstract Thinking - 10-20 years - development of ability to relate functions - such as the ability to relate addition and subtraction and understand why they are opposites, and the ability to combine dissimilar social interactions and emotions - such as combining honesty or dishonesty with kindness to explain the "social lie".
• Level II Abstract Thinking - 14-15 years - development of the ability to understand how functions are alike and different - such as how addition and division are alike and different, and the ability to combine complex thinking with social interactions and emotions - such as combining judgment with directness, kindness and tact at the same time to offer constructive criticism.
• Level III Abstract Thinking - 18-20 years - development of the ability to hold several issues, events, circumstances, functions, characteristics, etc., in mind at the same time and compare and interrelate them.
• Anything that interferes with how the brain operates during this 20 + year period can change the course of a person's mental, emotional, cognitive, and social development…and alter his or her opportunities for success.