Sexual assault on college campuses and in the military has been front and center, again, recently.  In this post I share how incorporating 21st century brain development research, coupled with the implications of alcohol misuse ages 12-25, can enhance education and prevention efforts and reduce sexual assaults on college campuses and in the military.

By Way of Background

The connection between alcohol misuse and sexual assault is often made, as I’ve highlighted in the following two examples:

• Jon Harper’s May 5, 2014, article for Stars and Stripes, titled: Hagel Orders DOD-wide Review After Sex Assault Report, in which he wrote, “More than two-thirds of the sexual assault reports involved alcohol use by either the victim, the assailant or both, according to the Pentagon.”
• NIAAA’s Alcohol Research publication, Vol. 25, Issue Number 2, titled: The Burden of Alcohol Use: Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Related Consequences Among College Students, which stated, “Perhaps greater than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape each year (Hingson et al. 2009).”

But what is missing is the connection between brain development, alcohol misuse and sexual assaults on college campuses and in the military.

Neural Networks – the Underpinning of the Brain Development Connection

Thanks to an explosion in scientific research now possible with imaging technologies, such as fMRI, SPECT, experts can actually see how the brain changes as it develops.

At the root of this changing – development – is the brain’s cell-to-cell communication system, aka neural networks.

Neural Networks – How Cells Talk to One Another
The brain controls everything we think, feel, say and do through neural networks.  Neural networks are the way brain cells (neurons) talk to one another. They, in turn, exchange information with other neurons (cells) throughout the body via the nervous system.

Basics of a Neural Network

This “talking” is done through an electro-chemical signaling process. This is easier to understand if you think of neural networks as strands of holiday lights. Anything that happens along a strand of holiday lights – a loose bulb, frayed wire, power surge – changes how that strand works. This in turn changes how all other strands connected to it work.

Similarly, anything that happens along a neural network – anything that happens to or changes cues, neurotransmitters, receptors, for example – changes how that neural network performs, which in turn changes how other neural networks with which it “talks” perform.

Alcohol is one such “thing.” It can interrupt the electro-chemical signaling process, thereby changing the way neural networks perform, thereby changing what a person “thinks,” feels, says and does. This is because alcoholic beverages contain a chemical, ethyl alcohol, that taps into and interrupts the chemical portion of the “electro-chemical” signaling process. This chemical interruption causes the “loose bulb, frayed wire, power surge” and explains why a person who drinks more than their liver can process slurs their words, stumbles, becomes incapable of driving, says mean, nasty things – and, yes, commits sexual assault because of the innumerable neural networks changed. [Note: This is NOT an excuse; it is an explanation.]

Depending Where in the Brain Cells are “Talking” (or not) Determines Behaviors

Science groups neural network activity into three main areas in the brain – as shown in the image above. Within each of these areas are sub-areas – prefrontal cortex in the Cerebral Cortex, for example. Neural networks that activate in these areas control everything a person thinks, feels, says and does.

There are three general groups of neural network activity in the brain, sometimes called sub-brains. They are the cerebellum, the limbic system and the cerebral cortex. This means neural network activity in these three areas (sub brains) is responsible for the behaviors described in the “3-Brain” image to the right. Basically, the cerebellum controls our motor skills, breathing and heartbeat for example. The limbic system is known as the “reactionary” part of the brain and controls emotions, pain, fight-or-flight and pleasure-reward. The cerebral cortex is known as the “thinking” part of the brain and controls judgment, complex learning and reasoning, motivation and perception.

And this is important, “Why?”

Because it explains that if your neural networks are controlling your behaviors from the limbic system, for example, you are not “thinking,” you are “reacting.”

And why is this important to know? Because the limbic system is where the brain’s pleasure/reward neural networks “reside.” Both alcohol (and drugs) and sexual arousal work on pleasure-reward neural networks in the limbic system.  Additionally, the brain pays especially close attention to things that happen in the limbic system because it controls our survival-type activities: fight-or-flight, reactions to emotions and pain and activities involving pleasure-reward. Not only that, but activity in this area of the brain can shut down – short circuit access to – the thinking part of the brain. This is how the brain was designed; a design that was critical back in the day for the human species to survive. [Again – not an excuse, just an explanation.]

Additionally, damage or changes in any of these areas – traumatic brain injury, for example, or the presence or development of a mental illness, such as PTSD or depression, for example – also change how neural networks in that area work, which in turn cause their own, independent changes in person’s behaviors.

                I can enlist and vote at 18, but I’m not supposed to drink – what’s with that?!

Why Brain Development Ages 16 -25 Matters So Much 

Because everything we think, feel, say and do requires neural networks, the brain wires trillions of them in the first decade or so of life. This is why childhood trauma (verbal, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, bullying, SHD-related stress) and mental illness (anxiety, depression, ADHD) have such a big influence on the developing brain and a child’s behaviors. Genetics (heredity) and social environment are two more big influences.

Then Comes Puberty Around Age 12
Puberty is an instinctual wiring process (meaning it is built into the human species).  It causes lots of neural network wiring activity – especially in the limbic system (the reactionary, not thinking, part of the brain).  The purpose of puberty-related brain wiring is to cause the species to turn to its peers and take risks. It’s also to develop the obvious–-hormonal changes and adult-like bodies capable of wanting sex and reproducing. These three instinctual drives (take risks, turn to peers and reproduce) were critical to the survival of the human species back in the day when mankind had a simpler, shorter lifespan and parents were likely dead, unable to protect a child from around age 12 on because the species’ average lifespan was about 25-30 years.

And Finally, the “Thinking” Part of the Brain
Today, however, these instinctual drives can be a bit of a problem because we live much longer, more complex lives. And here’s where the problem lies. There is about a four-year lag time between the start of puberty around age 12 and the start of the last stage of brain development—wiring in the cerebral cortex around age 16. As stated, the cerebral cortex is responsible for sound reasoning, good judgment and weighing the consequences of one’s actions. It is also the brakes on the risk taking behaviors that start with puberty. And it is the developmental stage when the brain starts to “prune” neural networks not used much and “strengthen” those that are. This pruning and strengthening process makes the brain more efficient. Recall those trillions of neural networks that wired during the first decade of life and those that have been wiring since. The repeatedly activated neural networks that “survive” the pruning and strengthening process become our “brain maps” for the things we think, feel, say and do with little conscious thought. They become our adult-like coping skills, habits and typical behaviors.

10-year Time Lapse Study Showing Brain Development – darker colors represent brain maturity (i.e.., wiring of neural networks) Courtesy: Dr. Paul Thompson, UCLA

Why Ages 16-25 Matter So Much
While wiring in the cerebral cortex starts around age 16, it takes until around age 22 for girls and age 24 for boys for this wiring and pruning and strengthening process to complete. The darker colors in the Brain Development Image to the right represent brain maturity. They show us just how much brain development is happening.

This lag time between the start of puberty and the start and completion of the cerebral cortex wiring helps explain why teens make poor “decisions.” When we think about it, there is no way we would give our 12 year-old the keys to the car and tell them to go practice on the freeway so they are good and ready when they take their driver’s test at 16. Well, the same is true of so many other adult-like decisions we expect from teens but which they are unable to fully execute without benefit of these final brain developmental stages.

It also explains why “Just Say, ‘No,’” typically doesn’t work and why teen brains handle alcohol and may approach sex-related experiences differently than adult brains.

It also explains why helping young people understand brain development and the power they can excerpt over their behaviors because of that understanding can be hugely important.

Different Approach to Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Programs – Incorporate the Brain Science of Alcohol Misuse & Brain Development

So how should we structure sexual assault education and prevention programs to address this complicated dynamic and these missing concepts? In my opinion, based on the anecdotal evidence I’ve gathered from years of working with young and older people through education and prevention workshops, training and consulting programs for students, military troops, treatment centers, adults who work with youth and the like, these programs must include education and training around:

• Brain Development (i.e., Why Just Say ‘No’ Doesn’t Work) and How to Use the Power of the Brain to Control One’s Behaviors
• Secondhand Drinking Protection and Prevention (secondhand drinking is the negative impact of a person’s drinking behaviors on others – i.e., alcohol-related sexual assault)
• Key Reasons a Person Loses Control of Their Drinking in the First Place
• Consistent Enforcement of Policies (i.e., Zero tolerance for underage drinking) – this is a whole other topic that deserves it’s own post, something I’ll save for another time.

With this approach, we help young people use the POWER of their BRAIN and we help those in positions to enforce underage drinking restrictions do their part to prevent alcohol-related sexual assaults on college campuses and in the military.

DISCLAIMER: This is not to suggest all sexual assaults or drinking problems are solely found with young people. There are plenty of examples of older people involved with both, in which case, the science of what happens in the brain when alcohol is consumed in excess still applies.

For more information about my approach, please visit Lisa Frederiksen – Presentations.

©2014 Lisa Frederiksen, All Rights Reserved

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

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