Adolescent heavy drinkers' amplified brain responses to alcohol cues decrease over one month of abstinence

In all ROIs examined, HD exhibited greater BOLD response than CON to alcohol relative to neutral beverage picture cues at baseline, indicating heightened cue reactivity to alcohol cues in heavy drinking adolescents prior to the onset of any alcohol use diagnosis. Across the majority of these brain regions, differences in BOLD response were no longer apparent following a month of abstinence, suggesting a decrease in alcohol cue reactivity among adolescent non-dependent heavy drinkers as a consequence of abstaining from alcohol. These results highlight the malleability of adolescent brain function despite no formal intervention targeting cue reactivity. Increased understanding of the neural underpinnings of cue reactivity could have implications for prevention and intervention strategies in adolescent heavy alcohol users.