Does Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Alter Ongoing Processes of Brain Development?
As discussed previously, the adolescent brain is a brain in flux. Many of the brain areas undergoing dramatic developmental change during adolescence are sensitive to ethanol. Ethanol use during adolescence may alter the developmental processes ongoing in these brain regions and hence may have different consequences than similar amounts of ethanol exposure in adulthood. Several recent studies in laboratory animals have supported this possibility. For example, following a 4-day period of multiple ethanol intubations (resulting in exposures of 9-10 g/kg/day), adolescent rats were found to exhibit substantially more ethanol-induced damage in brain regions including the frontal cortex than similarly treated adults (Crews et al., 2000). Rats exposed chronically to ethanol over a 20-day period that included much of the adolescent period were reported subsequently to exhibit a larger impairment in working memory following acute ethanol challenge than adults who were similarly exposed to ethan
