| dc.description.abstract | Adolescence is a period of considerable physical, cognitive, emotional, social,
and behavioral changes. Adolescence is marked by increased reward sensitivity,
sensation seeking, and impulsive conduct, as well as a loss of self-control in
controlling emotions and behaviors.
This contributes to the high prevalence of dangerous behavior, such as the
beginning and progression of alcohol consumption.
Researchers have been trying to figure out the direction of this association for
the past decade. Human research is limited to natural observational studies
since it would be immoral to randomly assign youth to different alcohol-using
groups.. By assessing youth before they have ever used alcohol or other drugs
and continuing to assess them over time as a portion of the participant
population naturally transitions into substance use, prospective, longitudinal
designs have been used to help delineate between pre-existing alterations and
post-alcohol effects on brain development. This methodology allows
researchers to compare the brain maturation of adolescents who have never
used alcohol or drugs throughout adolescence to youth who have transitioned
from adolescence to adulthood.
In a recent analysis, potential pre-existing neurobiological markers of alcohol
use in humans were summarized. While prior investigations have looked into
the neurological effects of alcohol consumption, there are certain limitations.
Previous reviews reviewed studies that looked at the influence of one
adolescent drinking habit or one study type (i.e. neuropsychological studies,
neuroimaging studies). | en_US |
