How does alcohol affect the human brain as it is developing in the teenage years?
Answer From the website located at: http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/Adolescence/adolescent3.html “While the overall size of the brain increases little beyond early childhood, important structural and functional changes take place as one progresses from childhood to adulthood (Giedd et al., 1999). Recent evidence suggests that, as a result of the changes in brain function that occur during adolescence, alcohol affects adolescents differently than it affects adults (for review see Spear, 2000). Adolescent rats are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of alcohol on memory (Markweise et al., 1998), a finding that might stem from developmental changes in the impact of alcohol on the functioning of a part of the brain known as the hippocampus (Pyapali et al., 1999). It also appears that adolescents might be particularly vulnerable to the long-lasting effects of alcohol use. Preliminary data suggest that alcohol exposure during adolescence makes rats more sensitive to alcohol-induced memor
