Teenagers - especially girls - who binge drink could be damaging the part of their brain which controls memory and spatial awareness, say Californian researchers.
Young women's brains are particularly vulnerable to harm from alcohol because they develop earlier than men's. |
Tests on 95 adolescents aged 16 to 19 were carried out by researchers at several US universities. |
The study is published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. |
Researchers recruited 27 binge-drinking males and 13 females and gave them neurophsychological tests and "spatial working memory" tests to complete. |
Binge-drinking young women were defined as those drinking more than three pints of beer or more than four glasses of wine at one sitting. Binge-drinking men drank four pints of beer or a bottle of wine. |
The same tests were then carried out on 31 males and 24 females who did not have episodes of drinking heavily and the results compared. |
Using MRI scans, the study team found that female teenage heavy drinkers had less brain activation in several brain regions than female non-drinking teens when doing the same spatial task. |
They suggested that this could cause problems when driving, playing sports involving complex moves, using a map or remembering how to get somewhere. |
Susan Tapert, professor of psychiatry at the University of California  and lead study author, said these differences in brain activity negatively affected other functions, like concentration and "working memory". |
The study describes "working memory" as using and working with information that is in your mind, like adding up numbers. It is also critical to logical thinking and reasoning. |
But the young men studied were not affected to the same extent, Dr Tapert said. |
"Male binge drinkers showed some, but less, abnormality as compared to male non-drinkers. This suggests that female teens may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of heavy alcohol use." |
