The findings, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine using an animal model, are reported online in the journal Neurobiology of Disease.
"This may be the mechanism through which adolescent binge-drinking increases the risk for psychiatric disorders, including alcoholism, in adulthood," says lead author Subhash Pandey, professor of psychiatry and director ofneuroscience alcoholism research at UIC.
Pandey and his colleagues used experimental rats to investigate the effects of intermittent alcohol exposure during the adolescent stage of development.
On-and-off exposure to alcohol during adolescence altered the activity of genes needed for normal brain maturation, said Pandey, who is also a research career scientist at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. The gene alterations "increased anxiety-like behaviors and preference for alcohol in adulthood," he said.
The behavioral effects, he said, were due to "epigenetic" changes -- "which previous research has shown can be influenced through environmental substances, including alcohol." Epigenetic changes can be long-lasting or permanent in an individual. Previous studies have shown that some epigenetic changes can be heritable.