| الوصف: |
While the association of prenatal exposure to and adult consumption of alcohol on the structure and function of the brain has been discussed in previous chapters, here we summarize the link between adolescent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alterations in brain volume. It is pertinent to consider the effects of alcohol on neural development at the adolescent life stage given that the brain undergoes rapid growth, reorganization, and synaptic pruning during this stage and up to early adulthood. Volumetric brain differences on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide useful signposts for underlying neural mechanisms that may be associated with cognitive or other functional deficits in the developing brain. A better understanding of aberrant brain volumes in adolescents with AUD may provide biomarkers that inform neuropsychological treatment. As of April 2014, 11 MRI studies have been conducted with sample sizes ranging from n = 30 to n = 140 measuring brain volume in adolescents with AUDs. These studies show that reduced hippocampal volume, most significantly on the left, appears to be a prominent feature of adolescent AUD, although some data suggest that reduced hippocampal volume could be a premorbid trait, associated with psychiatric comorbidity or related to the experience of early life adversity. Additionally, reductions in frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices and subcortical regions such as thalamus, putamen, and nucleus accumbens are observed in adolescents with AUD compared to healthy controls. Larger insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volumes may be associated with increased craving for alcohol in adolescents, and the effects of alcohol on brain volume may be different for boys and girls. Overall, AUD in adolescence may be a cause or consequence of volumetric differences in brain regions associated with memory, emotion regulation, cognitive control, somatosensory integration, and reward processing, functions that could possibly be strengthened by neurocognitive interventions during this early life stage. |
