-Animals that drank alcohol as adolescents had reduced myelin levels in the prefrontal cortex (area used for decision making and reasoning) and continued to display reduced myelin levels as adults.

-The more alcohol the rats consumed over the two-week period as adolescents, the worse they performed on the working memory task as adults.

Third Study

Heather Richardson, PhD, and her graduate student Wanette Vargas compared myelin in the prefrontal cortex in young male rats given daily access to either sweetened alcohol or sweetened water for two weeks.

Results:

Therefore:

-Heavy drinking during adolescence for humans may lead to structural changes in the brain and memory deficits that persist into adulthood.

-The amount of alcohol consumed                continues to affect the brain even after one stops drinking.