While adolescents appear less sensitive to effects that limit consumption, they exhibit increased sensitivity to the amnestic effects of alcohol intoxication [6] and are more vulnerable to alcohol-induced neurodegeneration [7,38]. Adult alcoholics suffer from a variety of cognitive impairments that are thought to reflect defects in central nervous system integrity, including hallmark reductions in brain volume (neurodegeneration) from both corticolimbic grey matter degeneration and altered white matter integrity [39]. Alcohol-induced neurodegeneration occurs in regions that control behaviors that may lead to addiction such that repeated exposure to the high blood alcohol levels characteristic of binge drinking is thought to be one of the critical steps in the downward spiral towards an AUD [38,39]. Unfortunately, these regions of the adolescent brain are more susceptible to the degenerative effects of excessive alcohol intake. For example, adolescents meeting diagnostic criteria for an AUD exhibit cognitive deficits that correspond to hippocampal and PFC volume reduction despite only a few years of excessive drinking [40-45]. The consistent reports of degeneration in adolescent hippocampus are intriguing as adults with AUDs do not reliably show hippocampal degeneration
