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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 According to the MRI scans, teens with a history of binge drinking showed damage to their brain's white matter -- specifically, a lower "coherence" of white matter fibers, which suggests poorer white matter health, Tapert said.
White matter is a main part of the central nervous system and is necessary for passing messages between different areas of gray matter within the nervous system.
Tapert noted that if this damaged white matter was just an image on a scan, it wouldn't be a problem. "But we have seen in other studies reductions in thinking and memory ability in adolescents who had histories of heavy drinking," she said.
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In those studies, teens with a history of heavy drinking retrieved about 10 percent less information compared with teens who were not binge drinkers, Tapert said. "We have also seen that if you start drinking heavily in adolescence, you are more likely to go downhill on other measures of thinking and information processing," she said.
Although this study is only a snapshot of a small number of teens, Tapert takes the results seriously. "I feel compelled to make sure my son is not getting involved with drinking as he moves into the adolescent years," she said.
Dr. John R. Knight, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research, Children's Hospital Boston, agreed.
"This is further evidence of the deleterious effects of heavy drinking on the developing adolescent brain," Knight said. "There is a growing body of scientific evidence on alcohol-related neurotoxicity, as well as evidence that brain development continues well into the third decade of life," he said.
The findings also have important policy implications, Knight said.
"We strongly recommend not lowering the legal drinking age, as some well-intentioned -- but very misguided -- college presidents have recently advocated. We do not strive to deprive teens and young adults, only to protect their futures," he said.
More information
For more on alcohol abuse, visit the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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