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Review
. 2022 Apr 7;42(1):07.
doi: 10.35946/arcr.v42.1.07. eCollection 2022.

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain: What We've Learned and Where the Data Are Taking Us

Susan F Tapert  1 , Sonja Eberson-Shumate  1
Affiliations
Review

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain: What We've Learned and Where the Data Are Taking Us

Susan F Tapert et al. Alcohol Res. .

Abstract

This article is part of a Festschrift commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Established in 1970, first as part of the National Institute of Mental Health and later as an independent institute of the National Institutes of Health, NIAAA today is the world's largest funding agency for alcohol research. In addition to its own intramural research program, NIAAA supports the entire spectrum of innovative basic, translational, and clinical research to advance the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related problems. To celebrate the anniversary, NIAAA hosted a 2-day symposium, "Alcohol Across the Lifespan: 50 Years of Evidence-Based Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment Research," devoted to key topics within the field of alcohol research. This article is based on Dr. Tapert's presentation at the event. NIAAA Director George F. Koob, Ph.D., serves as editor of the Festschrift.

Keywords: adolescence; alcohol; binge drinking; drinking behavior; magnetic resonance imaging; neuroimaging; neuropsychological tests; young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures The authors declare no competing financial or nonfinancial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Response to alcohol pictures in youth with heavy versus light drinking
Brains of youths who drank heavily activated strongly in response to seeing alcohol advertisements but showed little brain response to nonalcoholic beverage ads; this difference (i.e., signal contrast) was smaller in youth who drank lightly. The difference in brain response was greatest in adolescents with the highest consumption levels and was especially strong in the left hemisphere (positive affect), limbic, and visual cortex areas. Source: Tapert et al., 2003.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Model depicting how childhood trauma may lead to subsequent high-risk drinking
Note: Y1–Y4, Year 1 through Year 4. Source: Silveira et al., 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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