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Heidi Lesscher is a neurobiologist at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. As a researcher within the strategic theme of Dynamics of Youth, she studies whether alcohol consumption during adolescence is an addiction risk factor. 

Lesscher is very passionate about the importance of alcohol research: ‘As a young researcher, I worked for an American alcohol institute. It was there that I came to understand the gigantic scale of the problem of alcohol addiction. It is much more extensive than the problems surrounding the use of psycho-stimulants, such as cocaine and heroin.’ These latter, however, are considered a larger problem as they are more visible. Indeed, the consequences of using these substances have a greater impact on the users themselves, but if you look at the wider picture and include criminality and loss of employment among other things, the consequences of alcohol consumption are much bigger. Very much bigger.

The paradox

We know that adolescents drink a lot of alcohol. That can partly be explained by the fact that they tend to test their limits. Lesscher: ‘And testing your limits for the most part is healthy and important for your development. However, it also allows young people to enter the danger zone, as they look for challenges and try out substances that can be physically dangerous, such as alcohol.’

How harmful is alcohol consumption during adolescence in the longer term? Do, for instance, the addiction issues of adults increase if they start drinking during adolescence? ‘Starting to drink at an early age increases the risks of addiction at a later age, this much is known.’ However, not all youngsters who drink alcohol will get into serious alcohol problems when they grow up. ‘We think that adolescents are resilient and often able to recover well from a period of increased alcohol consumption. This is a certain paradox: on the one hand, we see that adolescents drink a lot of alcohol and, on the other hand, they appear to be very resilient.’

So, in some way, is it okay for adolescents to drink alcohol? Lesscher: ‘It is okay that adolescents experiment and perhaps this also applies to their alcohol consumption. However, I am not saying here that adolescents should use alcohol. We do think that adolescents are sufficiently resilient to recover from alcohol consumption and it is interesting to understand which mechanisms determine this adolescent resilience.’

Control over alcohol consumption

To learn more about this, Heidi and her team are studying the control over alcohol consumption in rats: â€˜What we see in animals that start drinking alcohol as adults is that the animals that drink a lot show addictive behaviour. This means that they continue to drink despite the negative consequences, which is a feature of addiction.´

This is not new and confirms what we already know. However, when we study animals that start drinking alcohol during adolescence, so at an earlier stage, we see that of this population those that drink more have control over their alcohol consumption. They do not show addictive behaviour as adults.’

Multidisciplinary research

In order to further her research, Lesscher works together with Leon Kenemans of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and with Janna Cousijn of the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam. By making use of questionnaires and neurocognitive tasks, both adolescents and adults are studied with regard to their alcohol consumption and cognitive control: â€˜As with the animals, we hope that through this study we will discover whether there is a relationship between alcohol consumption during adolescence and the control over alcohol at a later age.’

What does their collaboration look like? ‘We often meet up and discuss all the data concerning rats and humans. For me, it is interesting to learn more about the humane aspects. For Leon and Janna and their teams, the animal research adds to their knowledge. We all learn new things!’ By collaborating with colleagues from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Lesscher and her team can bring animal research to a practical level. ‘And, at the same time, we are able to answer questions that cannot be answered through humane research studies. That makes us complementary.’

What's next?

Within the year, Lesscher expects to obtain some concrete results of this study. In the meantime, they have started working on a multidisciplinary follow-up study. ‘Together with Janna Cousijn, who previously worked as a researcher at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ and now at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam, I have applied for a research grant to conduct a follow-up study with a focus on the neurobiological mechanisms. It is a direct continuation of the current project, which was started with a seed money grant from Dynamics of Youth.’

March 2017 update: grant for further research

Janna Cousijn has been awarded a grant by the . She and Heidi Lesscher will continue their research together with from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. Lesscher: 'We will use this grant for an fMRI study, where we will use the same task on humans and rats. Our aim is to measure and compare the effects of alcohol on the adolescent and fully grown brain.'

Join the study

The project is still looking for participants: men and women in the age brackets of 16-17 and 30-35 years old who drink alcohol regularly. The study consists of questionnaires and computer tasks and lasts approx. 1.5 hours. The location is in Utrecht or in a local library (on appointment). For further information, check out  (in Dutch) or send an email to youthalcohol@uu.nl.

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  dr. H.M.B. (Heidi) Lesscher

  Associate Professor

Heidi Lesscher is working together with Leon Kenemans, Louk Vanderschuren, Maaike Labots and (previously employed at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, now at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam) on this project. 

Dynamics of Youth

The Adolescent Paradox is a Dynamics of Youth seed money project. Within this research theme, researchers from different disciplines integrate their expertise to answer crucial questions for future generations. How can we help our children develop into balanced individuals, that are able to function successfully in a rapidly changing environment? As one of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ's four strategic themes, Dynamics of Youth combines excellent child research from all seven faculties.