Epidemiological reports of binge drinking vary in definitional consistency, but for young adults they indicate a large prevalence and imply a clear burden of suffering. The individual and social costs associated with binge drinking—such as drunken driving, induced violence, and personal injury—are profound. The cognitive damage that may be inflicted by binge drinking appears to involve alteration in critical neural mechanisms. However, experimental binge-drinking studies vary in their definitional approaches so that the what, where, and when of the neurocognitive insult is uncertain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and ERP methods are beginning to assay such outcomes, but these approaches require sustained definitional rigor to inform public health policies.
