Cited by 542Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesPrenatal Substance Exposure Effects

The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development

Open access
Squeglia, L.M., Jacobus, J., Tapert, S.F.·2009·Clinical EEG and Neuroscience

Abstract

Adolescence is a unique period in neurodevelopment. Alcohol and marijuana use are common. Recent research has indicated that adolescent substance users show abnormalities on measures of brain functioning, which is linked to changes in neurocognition over time. Abnormalities have been seen in brain structure volume, white matter quality, and activation to cognitive tasks, even in youth with as little as 1–2 years of heavy drinking and consumption levels of 20 drinks per month, especially if >4–5 drinks are consumed on a single occasion. Heavy marijuana users show some subtle anomalies too, but generally not the same degree of divergence from demographically similar non-using adolescents. This article reviews the extant literature on neurocognition, brain structure, and brain function in adolescent substance users with an emphasis on the most commonly used substances, and in the context of ongoing neuromaturational processes. Methodological and treatment implications are provided.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/155005940904000110

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Substance use during adolescence can induce changes in PFC activity and PFC projections to subcortical regions that persist in adulthood.

    “Substance use during adolescence can induce changes in PFC activity and PFC projections to subcortical regions that persist in adulthood (Squeglia et al., 2009).”

    From Sensitive periods of substance abuse: Early risk for the transition to dependence (2017) · cites this paper as Squeglia et al., 2009

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [55]Schweinsburg A McQueeny T Brown S Tapert S Adolescent binge drinkers show altered fMRI response during verbal encoding 2008 Paper presented at: Presented at the second International Conference on Applications of Neuroimaging to Alcoholism New Haven, CT
  2. [56]McQueeny T Schweinsburg AD Tapert SF Response inhibition in adolescent binge drinkers: An FMRI study 2008 Paper presented at: Presented at the second International Conference on Applications of Neuroimaging to Alcoholism New Haven, CT

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Squeglia, L. M., Jacobus, J., & Tapert, S. F.
Affiliations
University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
Tapert, S.F.
Venue
Clinical EEG and Neuroscience
Published
2009-01
Volume
40
Issue
1
Pages
31-38
ISSN
  • 1550-0594 (ISSN-L)
  • 2169-5202
OpenAlex
W2033602780
Cited by
542
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 28
FWCI
12.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical EEG and Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01 AA13419, R01AA013419, F31AA018940)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA02118, R01DA021182)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects
Keywords
adolescent substance use, adolescent brain development, alcohol consumption, cannabis use, neurocognitive function, brain structure, white matter, brain activation, neuromaturation, heavy drinking
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Alcoholism, Brain, Marijuana Abuse, Cognition, Cues, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Language, Memory, Organ Size, Recurrence, Research Design, Spatial Behavior, Substance-Related Disorders, Adolescent Development

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review