Binge Drinking May Affect Memory of Teens
Jul-19-2011

Binge drinking may have lasting effects on the still-developing brains of teenagers.
A new study shows that long after the hangover wears off, binge drinking impairs the spatial working memory of teenagers. Girls appear especially vulnerable to these effects.
Spatial working memory is the ability to perceive the space around you, remember, and work with this information to perform a task, such as using a map, playing sports, or driving a car.
"Our study found that female teenage heavy drinkers had less brain activation in several brain regions than female non-drinking teens when doing the same spatial task," says researcher Susan F. Tapert, acting chief of psychology at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, in a news release. "These differences in brain activity were linked to worse performance on other measures of attention and working memory ability."
"Even though adolescents might physically appear grown up, their brains are continuing to significantly develop and mature, particularly in frontal brain regions that are associated with higher-level thoughts, like planning and organization," says Tapert. "Heavy alcohol use could interrupt normal brain cell growth during adolescence, particularly in these frontal brain regions, which could interfere with teens' ability to perform in school and sports, and could have long-lasting effects, even months after the teen uses."

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