Substance use has a huge impact on the prefrontal function of adolescents who are people from ages 13 to 18. Researcher Jamie Donahey Roitman addressed some interesting facts about what the effects on the prefrontal cortex are. The prefrontal cortex has many function that include, goal directed behavior, sense of identity, relationship, judgment, and decision making. It is said that the cortex matures as we mature and is fully developed around age 25. Substance use during the early stages of your life can delay the process of maturation. It changes the gray matter density, implicated in executive control, changes the signaling, impaired judgment, altered brain development. With these changes, it is associated with academic problems, depression, anxiety and OCD. In addition, moderate substance use can result in lasting changes to prefrontal function, control of behavior that relies on it.
In Janet Hopson’s article titled, “How Alcohol Ravages the Teen Brain,” presents many different cases that were researched. Tapert and her graduate student from Wayne State University published a study in 2011 that tested “the inhibitory control skill of 38 12 to 14 year old while they were in an MRI machine.” They followed on the the lives of the same people for four years to see who started to use alcohol. 21 out of the 38 kids had began to drink heavily. The effects and problems of alcohol happen slowly and it’s hard to tell when drinking that something is happening. Researchers have found that the binge drinking “kills cells in the brain’s frontal lobes and hippocampus, a hub for memory formation. Alcohol also suppresses the birth of new neurons.” Although this was the consequence of those who started drinking earlier, what was interesting was that 12 brain regions were shown less active in their brain scans compared to the 17 who abstained. This included the prefrontal cortex and adjacent parietal cortex. The study concluded that the circuitry that is responsible for inhibiting actions was not working correctly in the 21 students according to the scans and results. In addition, Tapert and her team did another research starting in 2012, and they concluded in 2015 that having different brain structure can ultimately affect the function which therefore predates the heavy drinking in most teens, and “drinking itself causes further changes.”
Furthermore, “about 10 percent of eighth graders, 18 percent of 10th graders and 24 percent of high school seniors binge on alcohol.” 44 percent of college students regularly binge on alcohol. Researchers suggest that this handicaps their cognitive abilities. Most of the students who do drink are shown to have a 7 to 10 percent decrease on verbal, visual and spatial tests than their classmates who do not drink at all. Researchers have found that young people who drink have “trouble reading a map, following verbal directions to a place, assembling a bookshelf, planning a project, staying organized and learning new vocabulary, among other cognitive challenges.” Most of these troubles are associated with the prefrontal cortex. For example, tasks such as putting items in order, solving problems, multitasking, and working memory. These are the tasks that are impaired. Recent studies have shown that executive functioning and prefrontal cortex are more damaged compared to other regions of the brain. In addition, smaller amounts of alcohol consumed is evidently much better than periodic heavy drinking, which is more harmful to the body and the brain. This is because, “extremely high blood alcohol levels are toxic to organs, severely impair sensory and cognitive functions, and encourage habit formation or addiction.”
Overall, alcohol creates serious problems. Researcher Jamie Donahey Roitman and author Janet Hopson present similar points on the effects of alcohol on the prefrontal cortex of adolescence. Both have stated that the prefrontal cortex is the main region in the brain that is affecting more than any other region of the brain due to young age drinking. Researcher Roitman explained the symptoms and Hopson confirmed the symptoms by informing us about the researches that have taken place in order to truly notify the audience about the statistics and how detrimental this can be to one’s health.
Citation:
Hopson, J. (2016, May 1). How Alcohol Ravages the Teen Brain. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-alcohol-ravages-the-teen-brain/
No comments:
Post a Comment