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Adolescence and early adulthood are periods of particular vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. Young people with alcohol-use disorders display deficits in working memory (WM). This function is supported by the prefrontal cortex, a late-maturing brain region. However, little is known about the progression of cognitive dysfunctions associated with a binge-drinking (BD) pattern of alcohol consumption among non-clinical adolescents. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between BD trajectory and WM in university students. An initial sample of 155 male and female first-year university students was followed prospectively over 6 years. The participants were classified as stable non-BDs, stable BDs, and ex-BDs, according to the third item of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). WM was assessed using the Self-Ordered Pointing Task. Generalized linear mixed models were applied. The results showed that stable BDs committed more total perseverative errors and showed a lower WM span in the difficult blocks than stable non-BDs. Difficulties in WM span showed some improvement, whereas perseveration errors remained constant throughout the follow-ups in the stable BDs. There were no significant differences between ex-BDs and non-BDs. In conclusion, stable BD is associated with WM deficits, particularly perseverations and low WM span in demanding trials, when compensatory mechanisms may no longer be successful. The partial improvement in WM span may support the notion of a neuromaturational delay, whereas the temporal stability of perseveration deficits may reflect either neurotoxic effects of alcohol or premorbid characteristics. Abandoning the BD pattern of alcohol consumption may lead to partial recovery., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

It is well known that alcohol impairs response inhibition and that adolescence is a critical period of neuromaturation where cognitive processes such as inhibitory control are still developing. In recent years, growing evidence has shown the negative consequences of alcohol binge drinking on the adolescent and young human brain. However, the effects of cessation of binge drinking on brain function remain unexplored. The objective of the present study was to examine brain activity during response execution and inhibition in young binge drinkers in relation to the progression of their drinking habits over time. Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by a Go/NoGo task were recorded twice within a 2-year interval in 57 undergraduate students (25 controls, 22 binge drinkers, and 10 ex-binge drinkers) with no personal or family history of alcoholism or psychopathological disorders. The results showed that the amplitude of NoGo-P3 over the frontal region correlated with an earlier age of onset of regular drinking as well as with greater quantity and speed of alcohol consumption. Regression analysis showed that NoGo-P3 amplitude was significantly predicted by the speed of alcohol intake and the age of onset of regular drinking. The group comparisons showed that, after maintaining a binge drinking pattern for at least 2 years, binge drinkers displayed significantly larger NoGo-P3 amplitudes than controls, whereas ex-binge drinkers were in an intermediate position between the two other groups (with no significant differences with respect to controls or binge drinkers). These findings suggest that binge drinking in young people may impair the neural functioning related to inhibitory processes, and that the cessation of binge drinking may act as a brake on the neurophysiological impairments related to response inhibition., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the present study was to determine how binge drinking (BD) affects brain functioning in male and female university students during the performance of a visual discrimination task. Thirty two binge drinkers and 53 controls (non binge drinkers), with no history of other drug use, personal or family history of alcoholism or psychopathological disorders, were selected. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the performance of a visual oddball task. The latency and amplitude of the N2 and P3b components of the ERPs were analyzed. There were no differences between the groups in behavioral measures, but P3b amplitudes were significantly larger in binge drinkers than controls. This may suggest the presence of anomalies in neural processes mediating attention processing, or an imbalance (increased) of neuronal activity in P3b generators caused by the presence of BD pattern for a long time., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Binge drinking (BD) is prevalent among college students. Studies on alcoholism have shown that the prefrontal cortex is vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. The prefrontal cortex undergoes both structural and functional changes during adolescence and young adulthood. Sex differences have been observed in brain maturation and in alcohol-induced damage. The objective of the present study was to analyze the relationship between BD and cognitive functions subserved by the prefrontal cortex in male and female university students., Methods: The sample comprised 122 undergraduates (aged 18 to 20 years): 62 BD (30 females) and 60 non-BD (29 females). Executive functions were assessed by WMS-III (Backward Digit Span and Backward Spatial Span), SOPT (abstract designs), Letter Fluency (PMR), BADS (Zoo Map and Key Search) and WCST-3., Results: BD students scored lower in the Backward Digit Span Subtest and generated more perseverative responses in the SOPT In relation to interaction BD by sex, BD males scored lower in the Backward Digit Span test than BD females and non-BD males., Conclusions: BD is associated with poorer performance of executive functions subserved by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The results do not support enhanced vulnerability of women to alcohol neurotoxic effects. These difficulties may reflect developmental delay or frontal lobe dysfunction., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from a group of young children of alcoholics (HR; n = 17, 7 females) with a high-density family-history of alcoholism and from a control group (CN; n = 19, 10 females), ages 7-15 years old, during a visual continuous performance task. The P3 peak amplitude and the mean amplitude at five latency windows (300-800 ms) were measured at frontal (F3-Fz-F4), central (C3-Cz-C4) and parietal (P3-Pz-P4) electrodes. Data were analyzed using a mixed-model risk-group by stimulus-type (matching vs. nonmatching) by Electrode ANCOVA, with age as a covariate, for each of the scalp regions. The risk-group by stimulus-type interactions were significant at the parietal region for the P3 peak amplitude and for the 300-400 ms mean amplitude, although there were no risk-group main differences. The HR group manifested smaller differences between the amplitude of the matching and nonmatching condition than the CN group. These results suggest a deficient electrophysiological differentiation between relevant and irrelevant information and are discussed in relation to previous reports and to the characteristics of the sample.