Lecture #2

"Adolescent Brain & Alcohol: A Costly Mix!" was presented by Karen Williams on Monday, April 27th at the Decorah Middle School.  Ms. Williams was very energetic with her presentation but I feel like she would be best suited for a Middle School audience.  A lot of her jokes were childish, and although I can laugh at pretty much anything I feel like they did not go over too well with my college peers.

I learned a lot from the lecture.  Ms. Williams provided us with a handout of all the major points so we could remember them later.  I greatly appreciated this, but I did also take great notes.  She started out by explaining the brain itself.  For the first twenty-five years or so the brain is a sponge that sucks up everything.  The brain is developing during that time. Actually, different parts of the brain develop at different times.  There are three critical opportunities for brain development: (1) in the womb, (2) from birth to six years of age, and (3) from twelve to eighteen years of age.  Obviously the brain is developing 

like crazy in the womb. The second two stages of brain development are to learn the basics.  A child learns how to walk and talk.  From ages seven to eleven they are just perfecting the basics that they learned.  Around twelve there is a "reset" button.  Before twelve parents are usually in control and making decisions for their children.  At twelve the child starts to try and make the right decisions for themselves.  They start learning qualities that make them who they are.  They are no longer children, but not yet an adult so they need to learn how to become one.  Just like in the second developmental stage, there is a lot of trial and error.  After eighteen, the child perfects the new things they learned. Around the mid twenties the brain is fully developed.

What I learned that blew my mind was most people's view of hormones.  Most people think of teenagers acting out or being moody because of hormones.  However, what does a toddler behave like at times?  Moody, selfish, and unwilling to cooperate.  Isn't that what most teenagers are like?  It is because they are in the middle of high brain development.  There brain is the reason for their little outbursts of insensitivity towards others, not hormones.

Something else I learned was "the busier the brain the higher the risk".  During periods of high development the brain is working really hard.  So if the brain was interrupted in some way, it would be worse than if it were to be interrupted during times when development isn't as high.  When a baby is in the womb, neurons are connecting with one another 250,000 to 1,000,000 times a minute.  What would happen if that baby's mother were to drink alcohol during that time?  Alcohol slows down the brain's functioning causing those neurons to slow down.  If they are not working at the speed they  need to then the baby's brain could possibly not be fully developed by the time they are born.  This results in Fatal Alcohol Syndrome.  The leading known cause of 1/3 of mentally handicapped people is the use of alcohol during pregnancy.

Not only alcohol can hurt your brain but dehydration, a bad nutrition, lack of sleep, or an injury could as well.  When Ms. Williams read this list from her powerpoint she said something like "What happens if one of your student doesn't get enough to eat at home?" and "What if that student doesn't get enough sleep either because their parents are fighting?".  This caused me to tear up, but I don't think that was what she was trying to do.  She was trying to show that these things could be occurring simultaneously. 

A concussion to the brain is not a good thing.  An impact to one area can effect the entire brain.  If there was a Richter scale proportional for the brain a sneeze would be a 2.  Getting hit in a football game would be from 60 to 100. Second Impact Syndrome kills about 60 child athletes a year because once their immediate symptoms of a concussion or done their coach puts them right back in to play.  The brain needs time to heal itself.

"What do concussions and getting drunk have in common?"  It takes fifteen times longer for a teenage brain to heal than an adult brain.  An adult can recover in about thirty-two hours but it takes a teenager four days!  The immediate symptoms of a neural injury due to drunkenness or other drugs is: dizziness, silliness, confusion, stumbling, loss of short-term memory, and blackout.  Sound a little similar to the signs of a concussion?  The major damage from an neural injury due to drunkenness is also the exact same as a neural injury due to a concussion.  These are: shorter concentration span, forgetfulness, problems learning new information, less emotional control, and confused when fatigued or stressed. These all affect future learning.

Luckily, the brain can heal itself.  It takes time though.  First the hippocampus needs to recover. Once it is healthy again it will build new neurons to replace the ones that were damaged.  Not only is the hippocampus in charge of development, but it also helps make sure you remember and recover.  And memory is one of the most important things in development and learning.  Getting drunk on every weekend can shrink the hippocampus by ten percent.

Ms. Williams then went on to talk about alcohol, drug use, and becoming addicted to drugs and/ or alcohol.  One thing she said that stuck with me was that she reminded me that there are parents out there that throw parties for their children because they would rather want their children getting drunk in a safe environment rather than being somewhere and having to drive.  She said something like "they were more concerned about getting scratches on their children's outside from a car crash" instead of injury to their brain and development.  I graduated with people who's parents did this for them.  I just think that it wouldn't happen if parents knew what alcohol actually did to the brain.  Obviously parents know that alcohol is bad, but if they knew why I don't think they would be as eager to be the "cool parent".  I think my parents are pretty cool for being prudes.  I have to apologize because I brought this up in class just to say that it was something that really struck me and that I remembered from Ms. William's presentation but it started a huge debate which I did not mean to happen.

I learned a lot from Ms. Williams and I thought the subject was really interesting.  I told everyone about it.  I told my boyfriend, his room mate, my room mate and my mom.  My boyfriend's room mate even showed me an article his mom sent him called "Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain" which was written by Susan F. Tapert, Lisa Caldwell, and Christina Burke.  At the time I was still interested so I read the article.  After reading it sadly I lost interest.  It is just not the same if I don't have an older southern women telling me the information in a high-pitched voice.  I found that the article contradicted itself a lot of the time and the research that the writers did didn't really help their case.  One fact that I appreciate them stating though that Ms. Williams didn't mention was that "not all young people who drink heavily or become alcohol dependent will experience the same level of impairment, and some may show no damage at all."  There are many different factors like genetic influences, gender, age, use of other drugs, and co-occurrence of other psychiatric disorders.  Another thing that is important to point out is that the amount of alcohol that is consumed is not the main thing to be focused on but the pattern of consumption.  Drinking one alcoholic beverage every day does not have the same effect as having seven drinks in an hour. 

The website that was on the handout Ms. Williams provided for us can be seen here.

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain written by Taper, Caldwell, and Burke can be seen here.