When I was in a band, our drummer would show up to practice drunk before passing out on his snare. He seemed to be forever hung over. After checking out Fulton Crews' research on the effects of binge drinking, I'm not sure "forever" is an exaggeration.

Crews studied the effects of alcohol on rats, mice, and humans, and found that binge drinking can cause the kind of brain damage that impairs decision-making long after the drinking stops.

In one experiment, Crews showed that adult rats that had been exposed to binge levels of alcohol three weeks prior could learn things effectively but had trouble relearning.

Read More: Forever Hung Over: The brain, long after the drinking stops