Another Reason Not to Start Drinking as a Teenager

Heavy drinking in adolescence is associated with risky behaviors, including drunk driving, and with impaired attention, working memory, and visuospatial processing. These investigators used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the influence of heavy drinking on performance of a visual working memory task that activates parietal and frontal regions.

Cross-sectional data were obtained on 20 teenagers (mean age, 17.6) who averaged 39 drinks per month and 20 controls with no history of substance use. Heavy drinkers had similar performance as controls, but accomplished this with less use of occipital networks and greater compensatory use of dorsal (frontal and parietal) networks.

Longitudinal data were obtained on another 40 tee…