adolescent rats show differential sensitivity to brain damage compared to adults following 4 days of binge alcohol administration (Crews et al., 2000). Thus, human adolescents may be especially vulnerable to the deleterious effects of alcohol on neural tissues, including white matter. Another explanation of poor white matter integrity in binge drinking adolescents could relate to a disruption of neuromaturational processes. Developmental studies of white matter coherence have demonstrated increasing FA across adolescence (Giorgio et al., 2008; Hasan et al., 2007), reflected here by increased FA in the corpus callosum and fornix/stria terminalis with advancing pubertal stage. Low fiber tract coherence among drinkers could be due to an innate delay or an alcohol-related impediment in normal maturational processes. It is also possible that the observed changes may relate to axonal atrophy or membrane breakdown, important in the context of adolescent neuromaturation.
