It is averaged that 2 out of 5 college students, or 40% involve themselves in binge drinking as a social activity. That's quite a lot of alcohol if you really think about it.
Before the maturation and pruning of the brain's neural structures, young adults are more likely to commit risky or impulsive acts, such as binge drinking, and are less likely to make good judgments. The amygdala, associated with emotion is to blame in these actions because it influences behavior.
Because young adults are more likely to involve themselves in binge drinking since it is seen as socially acceptable, and because the amygdala is in charge of emotions, wouldn't it make sense if binge drinking was attributed to the amygdala?
And what else is to blame on the Amygdala??
Well that's an alarming statistic, but interesting. I never thought about the amygdala and impulsivity. Now I find myself wondering how involved it is in developmental disorders such as ADHD, in which the ability to reign in impulses lags behind.
I wonder if the impulsivity involved in attention deficit is even comparable with the impulsivity of binge drinking? On the one hand, we have the impulsivity that is apparent in one's inability to pay attention to one thing for a span of time, and on the other we have the impulsivity that comes from imbalances in reward-anticipation and decision making. Do you think they are the same, or at least share origins to an extent?
Is addiction related to all of this?