A new study now shows that binge-drinking students are permanently damagingtheir brains’ ability to process information.
The study finds that having five or more beers for men, or four for women, within two hours leads to distinctive changes in brain activity.
Portuguese scientists claim that these changes can lead to muddled thoughts, as seen in alcoholics.
Researchers say that the findings are worrying students might not see that much drinking as worrying.
While studies have found heavy drinking by alcoholics altered brain activity, there is also evidence that binging can change a teenager's brain too.
The study conducted by the University of Minho highlights the damage that a brain can get from alcohol.
Speaking about it, lead author Dr Eduardo López-Caneda said that there are hardly any studies assessing if the brains of binge drinkers show differences when they are at rest, and not focused on a task.
The study saw researchers attaching electodes to students’ scalps to assess electrical activity in various brain regions.
They found that binge drinkers had altered brain activity at rest and showed significantly higher measurements of specific electrical differences in brain regions called the right temporal lobe and bilateral occipital cortex.
They suffered very similar alterations to those of chronic alcoholics, the researchers said in the journal Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience.
