Alcohol[/caption]Carol Forsloff---It is common knowledge that alcohol reduces inhibitions, however science has discovered that it actually breaks down brain connections needed to process social cues.
Research supported by the Brain Research Foundation Grant has found alcohol intoxication reduces communication between two areas of the brain that work together to properly interpret and respond to social signals.
The research was performed at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine with results published in the September issue of Psychopharmacology.
Their results were published in the September issue of Psychopharmacology.
“Because emotional processing involves both the amygdala and areas of the brain located in the prefrontal cortex responsible for cognition and modulation of behavior, we wanted to see if there were any alterations in the functional connectivity or communication between these two brain regions that might underlie alcohol’s effects,” said K. Luan Phan, UIC professor of psychiatry.
Phan and colleagues showed study participants various faces to evaluate the activity of the brain, comparing modest to heavy drinkers who were each given a beverage containing a high dose of alcohol or placebo. Then they had a fMRI scan as they tried to match photographs of faces with the same expression. The researchers found that alcohol reduced the reaction to threat signals, specifically to angry or fearful faces of the photographys.
This research offers some information about what goes on the brain that leads to some of the maladaptive behaviors seen in alcohol intoxication including social disinhibition, aggression and social withdrawal.”
