Alcohol is known to have differential effects on adolescents than adults. Developing neurocircuitry in adolescents likely underlies the increased sensitivity to disruption of working memory and hippocampal function (White and Swartzwelder, 2004), reduced ethanol sedative response compared to adults (Silveri and Spear, 1998), increased neurotoxicity (Crews et al., 2000b) and exaggerated thrill seeking, social and motivational behaviors (Ernst et al., 2006). Human studies using in vivo brain imaging (Pfefferbaum et al., 2009) and post-mortem histology (Harper, 2009) find alcoholics have brain volume reductions compared to age matched controls, including adolescents (De Bellis et al., 2005). Pre-existing conditions (Prescott and Kendler, 1999) and/or binge drinking induced pathology (Stephens and Duka, 2008) could contribute to differences between binge and non-binge drinkers.
