Adolescence is the most dramatic phase of development. Weed, alcohol and marijuana are the most used. According to research, adolescent substance users report abnormalities in brain functioning, linked to changes in neurocognition over time. poor brain functioning and activation of cognitive tasks are the most recognized abnormalities. Adolescents who use pot and marijuana heavily also show subtle abnormalities, which certainly do not correspond to the same percentage of divergence compared to randomly similar adolescents who do not use them. Drug and alcohol use primarily affects neurocognition and brain function in adolescent substance users, with an emphasis on the most commonly used substances and ongoing neuromaturational processes. Special treatments and counseling are provided to those who are willing to give up drugs for good. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Substance use during adolescence has been associated with alterations in brain structure, function, and neurocognition. Research in adults has shown that chronic excessive drinking is associated with negative consequences on the adult brain, 1 this relationship has only recently been explored in the adolescent brain. Understanding the effects of alcohol and drug use on adolescent neurocognition is critical, as rates of use increase dramatically between the ages of 12 and 18. Epidemiological studies have shown that alcohol consumption in the last month increases by 13 to 20%, that is, from the eighth grade to the 12th. 50% of adolescents have used alcohol and at least 46% have used other dangerous drugs which they think can help them forget all the problems they have and also do well in school. While the developing brain may be most affected by neurotoxic effects, exposure to alcohol and drugs during a period of brain development can disrupt the natural course of brain maturation and key processes of brain development. Adolescence can be a time of severe vulnerability to the effects of alcohol on the brain 3-6. The cognitive challenges that arise from these alcohol- and drug-related insults have potentially harmful implications for subsequent academic, occupational, and social functioning that extend into adulthood. Therefore, it is important to clarify the neurocognitive consequences resulting from excessive alcohol and drug consumption. The developmental period of young people, between childhood and adulthood, includes complex social, biological and psychological changes. The relationship between these factors has significant implications for adolescent development. These include substantial changes in the efficiency and specialization of the adolescent brain, which are achieved through synaptic refinement and myelination, according to research in the New York Times. Excessive alcohol consumption during adolescence has subtle, but significant, deleterious effects on adolescent neurocognitive functioning. Studies have found that adolescent heavy drinkers show decrements in memory 24, attention and accelerated information processing 25, 26, and executive functions 27-29. The findings are consistent with literature examining neurocognitive deficits in young heavy drinkers, who have found similar decreases in attention and information processing, along with deficits in language proficiency and academic performance. cognitive deficits, recent data suggests that even after four weeks of monitored abstinence, adolescents smoke regularlymarijuana performed worse on tests of learning performance, cognitive flexibility, visual scanning, error making, and working memory. episodes were significantly related to overall worse cognitive functioning, even after controlling for lifetime alcohol use. We prospectively examined the neuropsychological functioning of 26 youth with no histories of alcohol or drug problems and compared them to 47 youth with histories of heavy adolescent use of alcohol, marijuana, and stimulants. Follow-up neuropsychological tests were administered to the subjects seven different times over the course of 8 years, at an average age of 16 to 24 years. Although there were no significant differences between users and nonusers on neurocognitive test scores at time point, heavy drinkers performed worse on cognitive tasks at age 24 than light drinkers. Specifically, those who had a history of alcohol withdrawal symptoms (e.g., orthostatic hypotension, nausea, insomnia, or irritability) were more likely to have decreased performance scores, especially on tests of spatial functioning. Overall, excessive alcohol use during adolescence has been linked to a reduction in keeping up with age expectations 7, 25, 31. In summary, adolescence is characterized by dramatic increases in rates of substance use in conjunction with ongoing neuromaturation. While neuropsychological studies have shown that adolescent substance use is linked to poorer spatial, inhibitory, learning, and memory functioning, neuroimaging techniques may elucidate the neural mechanisms of these performance deficits. Recent findings have suggested decrements in brain functioning associated with adolescent substance use. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies the neural activity of the brain by measuring changes in the BOLD (blood) signal 50, which indicates areas of increased activation in response to a mental task or stimulus 51. This technique is non-invasive and does not require injections or radioactive materials, which makes it a safe and appropriate technique to examine the functioning of the brain of adolescents and also affect their memory. The response of adolescents to alcohol advertising is worrying, as in many countries they are exposed to alcohol-related advertisements on a daily basis 60. We 61 have observed that young people who drink heavily show greater brain activation while watching alcohol advertisements compared to those who do not alcohol. drink ads. This substantially greater brain activation to images of alcoholic beverages was observed throughout the brain, particularly in the prefrontal area, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, posterior cingulate, and temporal lobe, and was prominent in the left hemisphere, limbic and visual cortices. This suggests that reward, visual attention, limbic, appetitive, and episodic memory systems were preferentially invoked in response to alcohol advertisements compared to nonalcohol advertisements in heavy drinking adolescents. Only the inferior frontal gyrus showed increased activation in light drinkers during the task, potentially indicating a negative valence to these alcohol stimuli in nondrinking adolescents. Overall, light drinkers showed a greater response to images of soft drinks. These findings extend previous studies in adults and link exposure to alcohol advertising in youth to activation of reward, craving, positive emotion, and episodic memory areas of the brain 62. Predicting therelapse Relapse is a common clinical problem in individuals with substance dependence. Previous studies have implicated a multifactorial process underlying relapse; however, the contribution of specific neural substrates had yet to be examined. We examined whether functional imaging findings immediately after drug withdrawal could predict relapse in stimulant-dependent subjects. The objectives were to evaluate the neurobiology of decision-making dysfunction in stimulant-dependent subjects and to determine whether functional imaging could be used as a tool to predict relapse. Participants included methamphetamine-dependent adult males seeking treatment (N = 46). All individuals underwent fMRI three to four weeks after cessation of substance use. Of the 40 subjects who followed an average of 370 days, 18 relapsed and 22 did not. The main outcome measure was BOLD activation during a simple two-choice prediction task. During the prediction task a house was presented, flanked by a person to its left and Right. The participant decided on which side of the house the car would appear. Each trial was self-paced to maximize self-determined action, so the subject determined the number of trials based on the latency to select a response. Immediately after the subject's response, the car was presented for 300 ms either far left or right. The screen provided feedback whether the prediction was correct. Unknown to the participant, the computer determined the response based on the participant's selection. Three types of error rate blocks included a high probability level (20% of the answers were “correct”), a 50% probability level, and a low probability level (80% of the answers were “correct” ). The task captures key elements of decision making: the probability of an outcome associated with an option, the positive or negative consequence, and the magnitude of the consequence 64. fMRI activation patterns in the right insular, posterior cingulate, and cortex temporal correctly predicted 20 of 22 subjects who did not have relapses and 17 of 18 subjects who did. A Cox regression analysis revealed that the combination of right middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and posterior cingulate activation best predicted time to relapse. In total, this is the first investigation to demonstrate that fMRI can be used to predict relapse in substance-dependent individuals. Relapse is likely to correspond to decreased activation of structures critical for decision making, and thus poor decision making sets the stage for relapse. The insular cortex may act through the interoceptive system to influence the ability to distinguish between good and bad choices, while the inferior parietal lobule may play a role in poor evaluation of decision situations and subsequent reliance on habitual behavior. Overall, substance-dependent adults exhibit brain patterns that can be used to predict if and when a relapse might occur. Future studies are needed to determine whether this is true for adolescents and whether brain activation patterns can be used to assess an individual's preparedness for completing treatment or responding to treatment. Overall, changes in brain functioning in adolescents differ based on the pattern of substance use. Research has shown that excessive alcohol consumption during adolescence can lead to decreased performance on cognitive tasks of memory, attention, skillsspatial and executive functioning. These behavioral ramifications of excessive alcohol consumption may emerge as a consequence of reduced volume of important brain structures (e.g., the hippocampus), impaired white matter quality, and abnormalities in activation during cognitive tasks. Studies have also shown that marijuana use during adolescence can result in decreased cognitive functioning, particularly learning and sequencing scores. In integrating and interpreting the results of adolescent marijuana studies in our laboratory, it is important to note that the groups are generally equivalent in terms of task performance, and thus it can largely be assumed that the underlying brain responses in controls and users represent the activity of the same mental activity. action. Corresponding marijuana-related cognitive changes may be related to increased gray matter tissue volume, decreased white matter microstructural integrity, and increased neuronal activation during cognitive tasks. In summary, we can reasonably exclude that recent use could explain the observed differences between substance groups, given that participants in some studies were abstinent for a month or more. Substance-using adolescents have been found to differ from non-users in neuropsychological performance, brain tissue volume, white matter integrity, and functional brain response. Longitudinal studies are essential to fully understand how alcohol and marijuana use influence adolescent neurodevelopment. The cross-sectional nature of most studies examining adolescent neurocognitive functioning makes it difficult to determine the influence of alcohol and drug use on adolescent neurocognition. Therefore, ongoing longitudinal neuroimaging studies are essential to ascertain the degree to which substance intake is temporally linked to adverse changes on indices of brain integrity or whether neural abnormalities reflect pre-existing patterns. In cross-sectional or longitudinal work, several methodological features are critical for assessing the potential influence of adolescent substance use on neurocognition. These issues involve ensuring participant compliance, accurately assessing potential confounding factors, and maximizing participant follow-up. Adolescent compliance as a research participant can be maximized by paying attention to the relationship, building trust, and ensuring privacy of self-reported data to the extent that this is ethical and feasible for the context. For behavioral tasks within or outside of imaging, it is critical to ensure that participants understand task instructions, are fully trained on the fMRI tasks, and then receive reminders just prior to task administration. Motion during scan acquisition is detrimental to the quality of imaging data and is often worse in younger adolescents than in older adolescents or adults. The adolescent's head movement can be minimized by the following steps: Discuss the importance and rationale for keeping the head still several times before and during the scan appointment; model and practice how to say “yes” and “no” when communicating with the research subject from the scanner; model and practice techniques for relaxing and ensuring that subjects are in a position suitable for long-term comfort (e.g., legs are not crossed) before the scan begins;).