granting certain characteristics found in human adolescents are clearly unique.

granting certain characteristics found in human adolescents are clearly unique, there are other clew characteristics of this developmental stage that are customary across a number of species. Animal examples offer researchers unique insight into the general intents of alcohol on the adolescent. This age period is particularly important for close attention because this is the time during which many family first experiment with alcohol. It is possible that features of the adolescent brain may in fact predispose a youngster to behave in ways that place him or her at particular risk for experimenting with alcohol or other medicines In addition to behavioral changes, a number of important physiological alterations take place during adolescence, including changes in brain regions implicated in modulating the reinforcing issues of alcohol and other medicines of abuse.

first note of the scale WORDS: animal model; adolescent; AOD (alcohol or other drug) use; psychological development; neural development; sensation-seeking behavior; risk-taking behavior; frontal cortex; str ess; neurobehavioral theory of AODU (AOD use, abuse, and dependence)

The transition between childhood and adulthood is associated with a variety of developmental challenges. During this time, children--as well as youngsters from a variety of species--acquire the behavioral skills necessary to enable them to live independently, away from parental caregivers. granting certain characteristics found in human adolescents are clearly unique, there are other fundamental note characteristics of this developmental stage that are universal across a number of species.

Animal standards offer researchers unique insight into the efficiencys of alcohol on the adolescent. Adolescence is particularly important for subject of attention because it is during this time that many commonalty first experiment with alcohol. It is possible that features of the adolescent brain may in fact predispose a youngster to behave in ways that place him or her at particular risk for trying alcohol or other medicines These characteristics may have evolv to enable the adolescent to checkmate this critical developmental transition. For instance, like their human counterparts, rats undergoing the developmental transition of adolescence point out to a marked increase in the amount of time exhausted in social investigation and interaction with lords They also are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, and they solicit out new situations and explore unknown areas more avidly than they would at either a younger age or in adulthood.

In addition to these behavioral changes, a number of important physiological changes present itself during adolescence, including significant hormonal and neural alterations. Brain areas that present to view particularly marked alterations during adolescence are the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and mesolimbic regions of the forebrain in which dopamine (DA), a solution brain chemical, is found. These regions also have been implicated in modulating the reinforcing powers of alcohol and other unsalable articles of abuse.

This article begins by the agency of defining the period known as adolescence and drawing distinctions between adolescence in humans and in other animal species. nearest the article reviews research findings from studies of animal patterns of alcohol and adolescence and discusses the ne for developing adolescent gauges of alcohol effects in other species as well.

DEFINING ADOLESCENCE

In general, adolescence can be defined as the gradual period of transition between youth/immaturity and adulthood. There is a scope to associate adolescence with puberty. over and above the process of adolescence is not synonymous with puberty. Instead, puberty is yet one of several important developmental changes that take place along the timeline that comprises adolescence. In fact, many of the behaviors that define adolescence, as it is as risk raking, alcohol and medicine use, and considerable peer influence, are public in settings such as body and the military as individuals impel toward autonomy, and these individuals are well past sexual maturity. Thus, whereas a certain number of clinical researchers define adolescence in humans as the age span from approximately 9 to 18 years of age (see eg Buchanan et al. 1992) others consider the entire secondary decade of life as "adolescence" (eg Petersen et al. 1996) equable ages up to 25 years have been considered as "late adolescence" by the agency of some researchers (Baumrind 1987).

The exact timing of adolescence is a matter of a certain quantity of dispute in laboratory animals as well (Odell 1990) Spear and Brake (1983) defined periadolescence as the age around the time of sexual maturation when age-specific behavioral and physiological changes are evident. According to these criteria, periadolescence in rats was defined as approximately 30--42 postnatal days (i.e., P30--42) although animals, like their human counterparts, may present to view some signs of adolescence at significantly younger and older ages, with male rats rending to mature more slowly than females. Indeed, age-typical alterations characteristic of adolescence may begin as early as P28 and may last in male rats until P55 or thus (see, for example, Ojeda and Urbanski 1994) In the monkey; adolescence is recognized as occurring in the age range of 2--4 years (Lewis 1997)