Video Transcription

Alcohol and the Teenage Brain

Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood, encompassing a period of major physical, emotional, intellectual, and social change. Our brains also change considerably during this time. The developing brain is a learning machine, and from when we’re born, it grows enormously as we learn more and more about the world.

This means we end up with billions of connections in our brains, but many of these pathways are either too slow or not needed. It’s during the teenage years that our brains are renovated, whereby most of these unnecessary connections are removed, or pruned away. At the same time, the connections that are kept are insulated to allow for faster communication across the brain—a process called myelination.

Pruning and myelination occur gradually over the teenage years and are greatly influenced by our experiences and interactions with the outside world, including the alcohol and drugs we choose to take.

Let’s take a closer look inside the brain:

• The frontal lobes take the longest to develop. By about age 25, they’ve become your center for decision-making, helping you to plan and organize, focus your attention, control your mood and behavior, and solve day-to-day problems.
• The temporal lobes are like an information-processing center that builds your library for sounds, speech, learning, and memories.
• The cerebellum integrates your senses, helping you to balance, control, and fine-tune your movements.
• The hypothalamus is involved in many functions, including the release of hormones that help regulate your temperature, hunger, thirst, and sexual development.
• The brainstem is like the final checkpoint for information going to the body from the brain, and vice versa.
• Alcohol affects the teenage brain differently from the adult brain because it’s still developing, and not all areas are fully operational. How you feel when you drink alcohol can be an indication of the damage it’s doing to different areas in your brain.

Alcohol affects the frontal lobes first, making you feel relaxed and reducing your inhibitions. This means you may talk more freely, act silly or rowdy, or do foolish things you later regret. As you continue drinking, your brain starts slowing down, reducing your ability to concentrate, make good decisions, and control your emotions and impulses. This means you might do things you otherwise wouldn’t.

In the hypothalamus, alcohol blocks the hormone that tells the kidneys to reabsorb water. This means more water is lost as waste, reducing the amount of water available to the brain. This dehydration explains the headaches and body aches you may experience the next day, otherwise known as a hangover.

Alcohol’s effect on your cerebellum is evident when you lose your balance and fall over or have difficulties with standing and walking. This is why injuries are so common when people are intoxicated.

Drinking alcohol particularly affects a part of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus, which enables us to form new memories. Alcohol interferes with the transfer of information from short-term memory to long-term memory. So, if you drink heavily over a short period, you may experience a blackout, meaning the next day, you can’t remember what you said or did. Drinking at a level that causes blackouts means you’re also much more likely to do something you wouldn’t usually do, and your friends may not be aware of how drunk you really are.

During your teenage years, you need to look after your brain to keep it healthy, just like other parts of your body. Scientists are learning more about the brain all the time, and research has shown that the damage alcohol does to the developing brain is not only short-term but may be permanent.

Look after your brain—it’s the only one you’ve got.

Video by  Turning Point