responses and loss of higher order discrimination function, e.g. sounds do activate cortex, but focal specificity is lost (Chang and Merzenich, 2003; Zhou and Merzenich, 2008). These findings indicate that environmental factors during adolescent critical periods of cortical development regulate the long term complex function of cortex. High alcohol consumption during adolescence may disrupt frontal cortical development similar to sound disruption of auditory cortex development.
