Tapert et al. (2004a) studied 35 youth (13 females) ages 15–17 years with a range of drinking patterns. All youth in this sample were defined as AU youth, with participants reporting drinking at least one time (91% reported drinking >10 times (lifetime), with a mean of 56.77 drinks per month). Participants carried out a visual working memory (VWM) task with high or low load. Hierarchical regressions (Step 1: age, gender, ethnicity; Step 2: drinks per month), suggested that two areas activated by the task predicted significant variance in AU. Specifically, an inverse relationship was found such that higher BOLD signal in the right superior frontal/bilateral cingulate gyri and right cerebellar culmen/right parahippocampal area was related to less problem drinking symptoms (requiring more drinks to experience the same effects).
