Heavy alcohol consumption and the adolescent brain: a functional neuroimaging study

Binge drinking (BD) can be defined as a pattern of intermittent and intensive consumption that raises the blood alcohol concentration to at least 0.08 g/dl. Previous research has revealed that this consumption pattern can lead to
neurofunctional and neurostructural abnormalities of different type and magnitude. With the purpose of deepening into the relationship between this consumption pattern and the brain functioning of young people and adolescents, a group of university students was selected to investigate, by functional magnetic resonance imaging, the neurofunctional correlates of response inhibition, and their modulation by alcohol-related stimuli, while executing a Go/NoGo task. Also, the resting-state functional connectivity of brain networks potentially sensitive to the binge drinking pattern was explored. The results obtained during the Go/NoGo task revealed that binge drinkers, compared to their controls, presented a higher neural activity, partially modulated by the alcohol-related content of the stimuli, in the inferior frontal gyrus extending to the insula, in the absence of behavioral differences. Likewise, binge drinkers exhibited anomalous resting-state functional connectivity patterns of regions of different functional networks
(default mode network, executive control network, dorsal attentional network, reward network), as well as in frontal and parietal regions involved in inhibitory control processes. These results provide new evidence about the
presence of abnormalities in the brain functioning, both in resting-state and during response inhibition, of young people with a binge drinking pattern.