Sugar consumption may lead to memory problems later in life, according to a recent study.

Studying rats as model subjects, researchers from the University of South California found that adolescents were at an increased risk of suffering negative health effects from sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 76 rats.

Adolescent rats that freely consumed large quantities of liquid solutions containing sugar or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in concentrations comparable to popular sugar-sweetened beverages experienced memory problems and brain inflammation, and became pre-diabetic. Neither adult rats fed the sugary drinks nor adolescent rats who did not consume sugar had the same issues.

"The brain is especially vulnerable to dietary influences during critical periods of development, like adolescence," said Scott Kanoski, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

They found that about 35 to 40 percent of the rats' caloric intake was from sugar or HFCS. For comparison, added sugars make up about 17 percent of the total caloric intake of teens in the United States on average, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rats were then tested in mazes that probe their spatial memory ability. Adolescent rats that had consumed the sugary beverages, particularly HFCS, performed worse on the test than any other group -- which may be the result of the neuroinflammation detected in the hippocampus, Kanoski said.

The hippocampus is a part of the temporal lobe located deep within the brain that controls memory formation. People with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias often suffer damage to the hippocampus.

"Consuming a diet high in added sugars not only can lead to weight gain and metabolic disturbances, but can also negatively impact our neural functioning and cognitive ability." Kanoski said.

Next, Kanoski and his team plant to see how different monosaccharides (simple sugars) and HFCS affect the brain.

The findings were published online by the journal Hippocampus.