Although both clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated the greater vulnerability of female adolescents to the neurotoxic/neuroinflammatory effects of alcohol88; neuroimaging studies have shown that female adolescent binge drinkers and those with adolescent onset AD exhibit greater reduction than males in the prefrontal cortex and larger white fiber disruptions, particularly in corpus callosum89. Results from this study show that coherence differences associated with rs12954372 predate significant alcohol use, and sensitivity analysis was unable to find a significant effect of early drinking on coherence measures. This suggests that the differences in parietal-occipital theta EEG coherence observed in this study are more likely markers for risk, rather than a consequence of alcohol use.
