Adolescence is the transitional period between childhood and adulthood and a critical period in brain development. Adolescence in humans is also associated with increased expression of risk-taking behaviors. Epidemiological and clinical studies, for example, show a surge of drug abuse and raise the hypothesis that the adolescent brain undergoes critical changes resulting in diminished control. Determining how substance abuse during this critical period might cause longterm neurobiological changes in cognition and behavior is therefore critically important. The present work aims to provide an evaluation of the transgenerational and multi-generational phenotypes derived from parent animals exposed to drugs of abuse only during their adolescence. Specifically, we will consider changes found following the administration of cannabinoids, nicotine, alcohol and opiates. In addition, epigenetic modifications of the genome following drug exposure will be discussed as emerging evidence of the underlying adverse transgenerational effects. Notwithstanding, much of the new data discussed here is from animal models, indicating that future clinical studies are much needed to better understand the neurobiological consequences and mechanisms of drug actions on the human brains’ development and maturation.

青春期是儿童向成年的过渡时期，也是大脑发育的关键时期。人类的青春期也与冒险行为的增加有关。例如，流行病学和临床研究显示药物滥用激增，并提出了这样的假设：青少年大脑经历了重大变化，导致控制力减弱。因此，确定这一关键时期的药物滥用如何可能导致认知和行为的长期神经生物学变化至关重要。目前的工作旨在评估仅在青春期接触滥用药物的亲代动物的跨代和多代表型。具体来说，我们将考虑服用大麻素、尼古丁、酒精和阿片类药物后发现的变化。此外，药物暴露后基因组的表观遗传修饰将作为潜在不利跨代影响的新证据进行讨论。尽管如此，这里讨论的许多新数据都来自动物模型，表明未来的临床研究非常需要，以更好地了解药物作用对人脑发育和成熟的神经生物学后果和机制。