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Review
. 2009 Jan;40(1):31-8.
doi: 10.1177/155005940904000110.

The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development

L M Squeglia  1 , J Jacobus, S F Tapert
Affiliations
Review

The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development

L M Squeglia et al. Clin EEG Neurosci. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Adolescence is a unique period in neurodevelopment. Alcohol and marijuana use are common. Recent research has indicated that adolescent substance users show abnormalities on measures of brain functioning, which is linked to changes in neurocognition over time. Abnormalities have been seen in brain structure volume, white matter quality, and activation to cognitive tasks, even in youth with as little as 1-2 years of heavy drinking and consumption levels of 20 drinks per month, especially if > 4-5 drinks are consumed on a single occasion. Heavy marijuana users show some subtle anomalies too, but generally not the same degree of divergence from demographically similar non-using adolescents. This article reviews the extant literature on neurocognition, brain structure, and brain function in adolescent substance users with an emphasis on the most commonly used substances, and in the context of ongoing neuromaturational processes. Methodological and treatment implications are provided.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hippocampal volume for adolescents with different substance use patterns. Adolescent users of alcohol, but not alcohol plus marijuana, showed significantly smaller left hippocampal volumes than demographically similar non-users (Medina et al., 2007).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ventral prefrontal volume in adolescents with minimal and heavy drinking histories; ventral prefrontal region is highlight in white in the figure to the right.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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