NIAAA-supported researchers at the Duke University and Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Centers continue to refine our understanding of how repeated exposure to alcohol during adolescence causes long-lasting structural and functional abnormalities in the brain.  Earlier this year, Duke scientists led by Dr. Mary-Louise Risher looked at how alcohol affects the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory and learning, by exposing adolescent rats to alcohol in a way that modeled the intermittent, high-dose alcohol use typically seen among adolescent humans.  They found that neurons in the adolescent hippocampus are vulnerable to alcohol-induced damage, with pathological changes that impair memory-related brain function into adulthood.

http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/news-from-the-field/news-from-the-field-01.html