Fein et al. (2013) examined how brain structure compared across AU and non-AU South African adolescents, aged 12–16 [mean age (M) = 14.82 years] from moderately low socio-economic backgrounds. All AU participants were matched to non-AU participants by age (within 1 year), gender, and structural imaging protocol (N = 128 youth; 64 AUD; 64 non-AU controls; 70 females). AU youth had begun drinking at age 11.97 years. In comparison, 44% of the non-AU youth had never consumed alcohol. Two significant group-by-gender interactions were found in terms of brain volume in the thalamus and putamen, whereby AU males had smaller volumes than non-AU males, and AU females had greater volumes than non-AU females. In addition, AU youth had lower GM density compared with non-AU youth in several regions from the left temporal cortex into the left frontal and parietal cortices. Importantly, AU youth showed an average 12.5% smaller GM density than non-AU youth. The VBM analysis showed significant differences in brain volumes for gender (males > females) and for alcohol use (non-AU > AU) across the left frontal, temporal and parietal regions.
