About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic is the first volume of Research Topic "Binge Drinking in the Adolescent and Young Brain". Please see the second volume here.

Binge drinking (BD), also known as heavy episodic drinking or college drinking, is a highly prevalent pattern in most Western countries characterized by the intake of large amounts of alcohol in a short time followed by periods of abstinence. This abusive form of alcohol consumption is a regular practice in around a third of European and American youths. The high prevalence of BD at this age is of particular concern since adolescence and youth are in a period of special vulnerability to neurotoxic effects of alcohol, mainly due to the structural and functional changes going on in the brain throughout this key developmental stage.

Evidence gathered during the last decade from animal and human studies seems to point to multiple brain anomalies associated with BD at different levels: biochemical, structural, functional, and cognitive. In this Research Topic, our aim is to gather a group of research articles as well as systematic or critical reviews which provide a comprehensive approach regarding the effects of BD on the adolescent and young brain. Thus, we aim to include manuscripts from different domains (animal and human), perspectives (behavioral, neuropsychological, clinical psychology, psychophysiology, neuroimaging, etc.), and methods (behavioural, biochemical, EEG, MEG, MRI, etc.). Likewise, we welcome submissions including new approaches for reducing BD, such as cognitive training and/or neuromodulation (by tDCS, TMS, etc.).

Keywords: Alcohol, Binge Drinking, Adolescence, Brain, Neurotoxicity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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