Reactivity to alcohol-related cues may be an important factor contributing to adolescent alcohol use and the trajectory to more habitual drinking in adulthood. For example, alcohol-naïve adolescent girls showed greater activation to alcohol picture cues than boys in frontal areas (Nguyen-Louie et al., 2018), which is consistent with a prior study in girls with adolescent-onset AUD (Tapert et al., 2003). However, once moderate-to-heavy drinking started, the pattern reversed such that boys showed greater activation than girls in response to alcohol picture cues (Nguyen-Louie et al., 2018). Thus, differences in activation to alcohol-related stimuli emerge prior to alcohol initiation in early adolescence and continue to differentiate once moderate to heavy drinking started in late adolescence.
