Researchers at the University of Southern California found the sugar-laden drinks can affect people's ability to learn. As well as causing obesity, the drinks have also been blamed for making youngsters more violent.
Now, experiments have found their impair the brain's activity, and aptitude for remembering information.
Dr Scott Kanoski, of the University of Southern California, said: 'It is no secret refined carbohydrates, particularly when consumed in soft drinks and other beverages, can lead to metabolic disturbances.
'However, our findings reveal that consuming sugar-sweetened drinks is also interfering with our brain’s ability to function normally and remember critical information about our environment, at least when consumed in excess before adulthood.'
In the study, both adult and adolescent rats were given daily access to sweetened beverages that mirrored high fructose corn syrup or sucrose sugar concentrations found in common soft drinks.
The adults performed normally in tests of cognitive function after a month.
But when consumption occurred during adolescence, the rats performed poorly in tests of learning and memory capability.
In addition to causing memory impairment, adolescent sugar sweetened beverage consumption also produced inflammation in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that controls many learning and memory functions.
Dr Kanoski, who presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour in Seattle, added: 'The hippocampus is such a critical brain region for memory function.
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