A cell-culture study using rodent microglia found that some of the genes affected by alcohol and inflammation are also implicated in processes that clear amyloid beta, suggesting that alcohol may impede the clearance of amyloid beta in the brain.
Chronic use of alcohol and marijuana during youth has been associated with poorer neural and cognitive function, which appears to continue into adulthood. A new study looking specifically at white-matter changes provides more support for the idea that adolescent brains may be at particular risk from the damage that substance abuse can bring.
It’s always difficult in human studies to disentangle the effects of lifestyle factors. Alcohol is a case in point, and in particular the vexed question of whether any alcohol is safe during pregnancy. A new study, however, has avoided the complication of co-occurring lifestyle and environment factors by looking directly at genetic variants.
Binge drinking occurs most frequently among young people, and there has been concern that consequences will be especially severe if the brain is still developing, as it is in adolescence. Because of the fact that it is only some parts of the brain — most crucially the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus — that are still developing, it makes sense that only some functions will be affected.
While moderate drinking seems to have a protective effect against age-related cognitive decline and dementia, cognitive impairment produced by excess alcohol is only too evident. Here are a few less obvious cognitive effects:
Simulated laparoscopic surgery was impaired in both novices and experts on the day following an evening during which excessive alcohol was consumed, although experts were less impaired than novices. Performance had returned to baseline levels by 4:00 p.m.
When people drank before viewing a video of serious road traffic accidents, those given a smaller amount of alcohol experienced more flashbacks during the next week than those given a larger amount of alcohol, and those given no alcohol. Those who had large amounts of alcohol had poorer memories of the event. It’s suggested that alcohol impairs contextual memory first.
Another study found that recognition of different-race faces was unaffected by alcohol, but recognition of own-race faces was — meaning recognition of same-race faces was at about the same level of accuracy as different-race faces.
Cognitive impairment produced by excess alcohol is of course only too evident. Here are a few less obvious cognitive effects:
Simulated laparoscopic surgery was impaired in both novices and experts on the day following an evening during which excessive alcohol was consumed, although experts were less impaired than novices. Performance had returned to baseline levels by 4:00 p.m.
When people drank before viewing a video of serious road traffic accidents, those given a smaller amount of alcohol experienced more flashbacks during the next week than those given a larger amount of alcohol, and those given no alcohol. Those who had large amounts of alcohol had poorer memories of the event. It’s suggested that alcohol impairs contextual memory first.
Another study found that recognition of different-race faces was unaffected by alcohol, but recognition of own-race faces was — meaning recognition of same-race faces was at about the same level of accuracy as different-race faces.
Heavy drinking can be chronic, or occasional. Both have their price.
A rat study suggests that it doesn’t take all that long before heavy drinking produces long-lasting cognitive deficits. Rats drinking for eight weeks (but not four) developed deficits that lasted at least 12 weeks after drinking stopped — “equivalent to a human that drank six to eight beers or one bottle of wine a day every day for six years experiencing learning and memory deficits up to nine years after they stopped drinking alcohol."
Brain scans of heavy social drinkers have revealed damage to white matter that was associated with lower executive and working memory functions. This is consistent with a self-report study that found that heavy users of alcohol were more likely to miss appointments, forget birthdays and pay bills on time, and to forget whether they had done something or where they had put something.
One study suggests that heavy drinking is particularly a problem for those infected with HIV. The mediotemporal lobe is affected early in both these conditions, so it is not surprising that those positive for HIV with a history of chronic heavy drinking were found to have trouble encoding new information for long-term memory.
Smoking has a particularly negative effect in conjunction with alcohol (and unfortunately they are often found in tandem). While moderate drinking can in some circumstances have positive effects on the brain, this is probably not the case for those who smoke. Moreover, smoking makes it much harder for the brain to recover from the effects of alcohol abuse, the damage done to the brain by heavy alcohol consumption is likely to be much worse if the individual is a smoker.
One of the characteristics of alcoholics is that they don’t recognize the extent of their problem. So perhaps it’s no surprise that a study found that alcoholics were relatively unaware of their memory deficits and believed that their memory was much better than it was. Moreover, the greater their deficits, the less they were aware of them!
Years of heavy alcohol consumption impair executive functions, including judgment, problem solving, decision making, planning, and social conduct.
Imaging studies indicate that the brains of alcoholics develop compensatory mechanisms to maintain cognitive skills despite alcohol's damages. It seems likely that this wider activity comes at the expense of other tasks, thus reducing their ability to multitask.
Excessive chronic drinking is also associated with deficits in comprehending emotional information, such as recognizing different facial expressions, and visuospatial deficits, characterized by difficulties completing tasks such as putting pieces of a puzzle together or map reading. While long-term abstinence can recover most of the cognitive function lost, spatial processing abilities seem much harder to recover.
In line with these problems of executive function, episodic and spatial memory, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus are especially vulnerable to the effects of chronic alcoholism.
Alcoholics have also been found to have an impaired cortisol response to stress, and this is associated with lower scores on measures of problem-solving ability and memory. Another exacerbating factor may come from poorer sleep — recovering alcoholics have been found to have significantly poorer sleep quality.
There is some evidence that women are more vulnerable to the effects of binge drinking and chronic heavy drinking.
Binge drinking is particularly evident among young people. Several studies point to effects on executive functions, including attention and working memory. This has consequences for planning and decision-making, as well as memory tasks.
Memory impairment following too much alcohol is particularly common among adolescent drinkers, possibly because of disruption in the hippocampus, which is still developing during adolescence.
Other physiological consequences of teenage binge drinking may be damaged white matter connectivity, and reduced activity of many neurotransmitter genes. There is some indication that some of these effects may persist into adulthood.
Studies suggest that there is no safe dose, nor safe time to drink, for pregnant women, although the timing does affect the nature of the damage. It seems that alcohol is especially damaging for the development of the dopamine system.
Children prenatally exposed to alcohol are not consistently impaired however. A monkey study suggests why — it seems a gene variant makes the carrier more susceptible to the effects of fetal alcohol exposure. The gene has previously been implicated in increased depression risk.
Other research has suggested that children whose mothers are older than 30 years, those whose mothers have alcohol dependence, those whose parents provide a less stimulating environment, and those whose mothers reported drinking during the time of conception, are at greater risk from prenatal alcohol exposure.
It’s also the case that cognitive deficits are not always evident. One study found that children prenatally exposed to moderate-to-heavy levels of alcohol were perfectly competent at simple tasks, but failed when asked to multi-task. Such working memory deficits may partly be a result of slower processing speed.
Hope comes from a finding that two factors can considerably mitigate the negative effects of prenatal alcohol exposure: being diagnosed early in life and being raised in a stable and nurturing environment.
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder are particularly impaired in mathematical ability, possibly due to specific deficits in memory for numbers and sequences.
Distinguishing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder from other developmental disorders may have got easier, with a simple test that measures eye movement.
A study involving 42 long-term alcoholics who had not had a drink for up to 719 days (mean age 49 years, 27 men) has found that, compared to controls, alcoholics had significantly poorer sleep quality, measured by a significantly lower percentage of slow wave sleep and significantly more stage 1 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Moreover, estimated lifetime alcohol consumption was significantly related to the scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, with higher lifetime consumption predicting less sleep satisfaction. The reduction in slow wave activity was specific to NREM sleep. This could act as an exacerbating factor in alcoholics' cognitive decline.
[792] Colrain, I. M., Turlington S., & Baker F. C. (2009). Impact of alcoholism on sleep architecture and EEG power spectra in men and women. Sleep. 32(10), 1341 - 1352.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/aaos-aeo092309.php
Excessive chronic drinking is known to be associated with deficits in comprehending emotional information, such as recognizing different facial expressions. Now an imaging study of abstinent long-term alcoholics has found that they show decreased and abnormal activity in the amygdala
and hippocampus when looking at facial expressions. They also show increased activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the failure of the limbic areas. The finding is consistent with other studies showing alcoholics invoking additional and sometimes higher-order brain systems to accomplish a relatively simple task at normal levels. The study compared 15 abstinent long-term alcoholics and 15 healthy, nonalcoholic controls, matched on socioeconomic backgrounds, age, education, and IQ.
[1044] Marinkovic, K., Oscar-Berman M., Urban T., O'Reilly C. E., Howard J. A., Sawyer K., et al. (2009). Alcoholism and dampened temporal limbic activation to emotional faces. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research. 33(11), 1880 - 1892.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/ace-edc080509.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/bumc-rfa081109.php
A Spanish study of 95 first-year university students, 42 of them binge drinkers, has found that those who engaged in binge drinking required greater attentional processing during a visual working memory task in order to carry it out correctly. They also had difficulties differentiating between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. Binge drinkers are defined as males who drink five or more standard alcohol drinks, and females who drink four or more, on one occasion and within a two-hour interval. Some 40% of university students in the U.S. are considered binge drinkers.
Crego, A., Holguín, S. R., Parada, M., Mota, N., Corral, M., & Cadaveira, F. (2009). Binge drinking affects attentional and visual working memory processing in young university students. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 33(11), 1870-1879. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19673739
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/ace-bda080509.php
A study involving 40 individuals with HIV, 38 with chronic alcoholism, 47 with both HIV and chronic alcoholism, and 39 controls, has found that although those with only one of these disorders mostly performed at levels comparable to controls on episodic and working memory tasks, those who were both positive for HIV and had a history of chronic heavy drinking were impaired on tests of immediate episodic memory (but not working memory) — meaning that they have trouble encoding new information for long-term memory. The finding is consistent with the fact that the mediotemporal lobe is affected early by both these conditions. Heavy drinking is very common among those infected with HIV.
Fama, R., Rosenbloom, M. J., Nichols, N., Pfefferbaum, A., & Sullivan, E. V. (2009). Working and episodic memory in HIV infection, alcoholism, and their comorbidity: baseline and 1-year follow-up examinations. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 33(10), 1815-1824. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19656122
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/ace-hia072009.php
An imaging study of 28 teens, of whom half had a history of binge drinking (but did not meet the criteria for alcohol abuse), has found that those who had engaged in binge drinking episodes had lower coherence of white matter fibers in 18 different areas across the brain. The findings add to a growing literature indicating that adolescent alcohol involvement is associated with specific brain characteristics. White matter integrity is essential to the efficient relay of information in the brain.
McQueeny, T., Schweinsburg, B. C., Schweinsburg, A. D., Jacobus, J., Bava, S., Frank, L. R., & Tapert, S. F. (2009). Altered white matter integrity in adolescent binge drinkers. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 33(7), 1278-1285. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19389185
http://www.physorg.com/news159646086.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/ace-abd041509.php
Despite the damage done by alcoholism to the frontal lobes and cerebellum, areas involved in language processing, alcoholics' language skills appear to be relatively spared from alcohol's damaging effects. A new study of 12 alcoholic males and 12 healthy controls suggests that alcoholics develop compensatory mechanisms to maintain their language skills despite alcohol's damages. The comparable performance on an auditory language task between the two groups was underlain by different neural activity (specifically, the alcoholic group showed greater activity in the left middle frontal gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the cerebellar vermis). It seems likely that this wider activity comes at the expense of other tasks, thus reducing their ability to multitask.
[926] Chanraud-Guillermo, S., Andoh J., Martelli C., Artiges E., Pallier C., Aubin H. - J., et al. (2009). Imaging of language-related brain regions in detoxified alcoholics. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research. 33(6), 977 - 984.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ace-tbm031209.php
It is estimated that brain volume decreases by 1.9% per decade, accompanied by an increase in white matter lesions. Because moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, it’s been thought that small amounts of alcohol might also reduce age-related declines in brain volume, although it’s known that large amounts of alcohol will reduce brain volume. However, a large, long-running study, has now found that, even at low levels of alcohol consumption, brain volume was negatively affected. Moreover, although men were more likely to be heavier drinkers, the association between drinking and brain volume was stronger in women.
Paul, C. A., Au, R., Fredman, L., Massaro, J. M., Seshadri, S., DeCarli, C., & Wolf, P. A. (2008). Association of Alcohol Consumption With Brain Volume in the Framingham Study. Arch Neurol, 65(10), 1363-1367. Retrieved from http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/10/1363
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/jaaj-daa100908.php
An imaging study of 8 heavy-drinking alcoholics and 8 age and ethnicity matched non-alcoholics (all male) found that total hippocampus volume was significantly reduced among the alcoholics.
[677] Beresford, T. P., Arciniegas D. B., Alfers J., Clapp L., Martin B., Du Y., et al. (2006). Hippocampus Volume Loss Due to Chronic Heavy Drinking. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 30(11), 1866 - 1870.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/ace-hcd101606.php
Results of a study involving middle-aged alcoholics who have been sober for six months to 13 years, suggest that long-term abstinent alcoholics can recover most of their neurocognitive deficits. However, deficits in spatial-processing abilities continued. Visuospatial processes are important for many daily activities, including driving, reading a map, assembling things, and performing tasks that require spatial orientation. The study doesn’t however know how much damage had been done when the alcoholics ceased drinking; further studies are exploring the recovery of older abstinent alcoholics who ceased drinking at different ages.
[856] Fein, G., Torres J., Price L. J., & Sclafani V. D. (2006). Cognitive Performance in Long-Term Abstinent Alcoholic Individuals. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 30(9), 1538 - 1544.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/ace-lam082106.php
A study of 34 male and 42 female alcoholics has found that, although the women had been alcoholics for just 5.5 years on average, compared to the average 10.4 years for the men, the women had lost as much proportionate brain volume as the men. The findings are consistent with other studies suggesting that women suffer from the effects of alcohol abuse faster.
[1258] Mann, K., Ackermann K., Croissant B., Mundle G., Nakovics H., & Diehl A. (2005). Neuroimaging of Gender Differences in Alcohol Dependence: Are Women More Vulnerable?. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 29(5), 896 - 901.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050509/full/050509-15.html
It’s well established that chronic alcohol consumption can produce deficits in learning and memory. A new rodent study, however, is the first to show that continuous drinking for as little as eight weeks can produce deficits in learning and memory that last at least 12 weeks after drinking stopped — “equivalent to a human that drank six to eight beers or one bottle of wine a day every day for six years experiencing learning and memory deficits up to nine years after they stopped drinking alcohol." These deficits were global — that is, they affected long-term memory for every type of task tested. Short-term memory was not affected. Rats who drank for only four weeks did not experience the same effects.
Farr, S. A., Scherrer, J. F., Banks, W. A., Flood, J. F., & Morley, J. E. (2005). Chronic Ethanol Consumption Impairs Learning and Memory After Cessation of Ethanol. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(6), 971-982. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ALC.0000171038.03371.56
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/ace-dfj060605.php
A new study looked at the cognitive effects of binge drinking, which apparently is on the rise in several countries, including Britain and the US. The study involved 100 healthy moderate-to-heavy social drinkers aged between 18 and 30. There were equal numbers of males and females. The study found that female binge drinkers performed worse on the working-memory and vigilance tasks than did the female non-binge drinkers.
Townshend, J. M., & Duka, T. (2005). Binge Drinking, Cognitive Performance and Mood in a Population of Young Social Drinkers. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(3), 317-325. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ALC.0000156453.05028.F5
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/ace-bdc030705.php
A number of speakers at Symposium speakers at the June 2004 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Vancouver, reported on research concerning the vulnerability of the adolescent brain to the damaging effects of alcohol. Some of the findings presented were:
Monti, P. M., Jr, R. M., Nixon, K., Sher, K. J., Swartzwelder, S., Tapert, S. F., … Crews, F. T. (2005). Adolescence: Booze, Brains, and Behavior. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(2), 207-220. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ALC.0000153551.11000.F3
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/ace-ade020705.php
Detoxified alcoholics often have visuospatial and visuoperceptual deficits, characterized by difficulties completing tasks such as putting pieces of a puzzle together or map reading. A new study has found that, even with prolonged sobriety, alcoholics show deficits in visuoperception and frontal executive functioning of the brain. Furthermore, alcoholics utilize a more complex higher-order cognitive system (frontal executive functions) to perform the same tasks as individuals without a history of alcoholism. The potential problem with this is that if that same system is needed for a competing task, alcoholics may be at a disadvantage because that system would otherwise be engaged. The study involved 51 recently detoxified nonamnesic alcoholic men (ages 29 to 66 years) compared with 63 "normal," control men (ages 21 to 70 years).
Fama, R., Pfefferbaum, A. & Sullivan, E. V. 2004. Perceptual Learning in Detoxified Alcoholic Men: Contributions From Explicit Memory, Executive Function, and Age. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 28(11), 1657-1665.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/ace-ach110804.php
A rat study has found that the detrimental effect of alcohol on the formation of new neurons in the adult rat hippocampus is followed by a pronounced increase in new neuron formation in the hippocampus within four-to-five weeks of abstinence. This included a twofold burst in brain cell proliferation at day seven of abstinence. The findings may have significant implications for treatment of alcoholism during recovery. The discovery of regeneration of neurons in recovery opens up new avenues of therapies aimed at regeneration of brain cells.
[393] Nixon, K., & Crews F. T. (2004). Temporally Specific Burst in Cell Proliferation Increases Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Protracted Abstinence from Alcohol. J. Neurosci.. 24(43), 9714 - 9722.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/uonc-nbc110504.php
Years of heavy alcohol consumption are known to impair many abilities generally referred to as “executive functions.” Such functions include judgment, problem solving, decision making, planning, and social conduct. But alcohol affects executive functioning both chronically and acutely. New research has found that alcohol abuse patients show significant deficits in executive functioning (specifically, abstract reasoning, memory discrimination, and effectiveness on timed tasks) during the critical first weeks of abstinence. The finding has implications for treatment programs, as the early phases of most treatment programs for alcohol abusers commonly require working in groups, making plans for the future, inhibiting behaviors related to their addiction, and remembering specific things. It is suggested that clinicians should scale down their expectations of what patients can do until more of their executive functioning comes back. The researchers are now intending to explore how long it takes the majority of people to regain most of their executive functioning.
[194] Zinn, S., Stein R., & Swartzwelder S. H. (2004). Executive Functioning Early in Abstinence From Alcohol. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 28(9), 1338 - 1346.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/ace-cco090504.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/dumc-cfo091004.php
Almost all knowledge about brain damage due to chronic alcohol consumption has been gathered from alcoholics, generally toward the end of an institutionalized treatment program or many months into abstinence. A new study however, uses magnetic resonance technology to examine brain damage in heavy drinkers who are not in treatment and function relatively well in the community. The study found that frontal white matter NAA – generally considered to be a marker of neuronal damage – was lower in heavy drinkers than light drinkers, and was associated with lower executive and working memory functions. Some of the behaviors that could be associated with the metabolite changes include the inability to apply consequences from past actions, difficulties with abstract concepts of time and money, difficulties with storing and retrieving information, and frequently needing external motivators.
Weiner, M. W., Meyerhoff, D. J., Blumenfeld, R., Truran, D., Lindgren, J., Flenniken, D., … Studholme, C. (2004). Effects of Heavy Drinking, Binge Drinking, and Family History of Alcoholism on Regional Brain Metabolites. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 28(4), 650-661. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ALC.0000121805.12350.CA
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/ace-sab040704.php
Mouse studies suggest that even small amounts of alcohol or anesthetic drugs can trigger nerve cell death in the developing brain. The brain appears most sensitive to this effect during the development stage known as the brain growth spurt. In humans this lasts from about the sixth month of pregnancy to a child's third birthday. Nerve cells are genetically programmed to commit suicide if they fail to make synaptic connections on time. Alcohol and anesthetic drugs interfere with the brain's neurotransmitter systems and with the formation of those synaptic connections, automatically activating a signal within the neuron that directs it to commit suicide.
Olney, J.W. 2004. Perinatal Drug/Alcohol Exposure and Neuronal Suicide – Public Health Implications. Paper presented February 14 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/wuso-sao021104.php
A comparison between the brains of five men with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome and the brains of men with Alzheimer's disease as well as the brains of healthy men, found that the brains of all Korsakoff's patients and Alzheimer's patients were comparable in significant volume loss in the hippocampus. Greater hippocampal damage (for Korsakoff's patients) and smaller hippocampal size (for Alzheimer’s) was correlated with poorer memory performance. It is suggested that, although there are of course a number of differences between these disorders, the nature of the memory impairment may be the same. Awareness of the similarities may help detection of both disorders.
[262] Sullivan, E. V., & Marsh L. (2003). Hippocampal volume deficits in alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome. Neurology. 61(12), 1716 - 1719.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-12/aaon-seu121503.php
A new study involving 763 participants (465 female, 298 males) used self-report questionnaires: the Prospective Memory Questionnaire (PMQ), the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ), and the UEL (University of East London) Recreational Drug Use Questionnaire, and found that heavy users of alcohol reported making consistently more errors than those who said that they consumed little or no alcohol. More specifically, those who reported higher levels of alcohol consumption were more likely to miss appointments, forget birthdays and pay bills on time (prospective memory), as well as more problems remembering whether they had done something, like locking the door or switching off the lights or oven, or where they had put items like house keys. The study also found a significant increase in reported memory problems by people who claimed to drink between 10 and 25 units each week in comparison to non-drinkers – this is within the ’safe drinking’ limits suggested by U.K. government guidelines.
Ling, J., Heffernan, T. M., Buchanan, T., Rodgers, J., Scholey, A. B., & Parrott, A. C. (2003). Effects of Alcohol on Subjective Ratings of Prospective and Everyday Memory Deficits. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 27(6), 970-974. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2003.tb04422.x
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-06/ace-add060903.php
Two functions commonly compromised by chronic alcoholism are executive functions (such as problem solving, putting things in order, working memory, doing multiple tasks at once) and balance (the ability to walk a straight line or stand on one foot, especially with eyes closed or in the dark). Executive functions are primarily processed in the prefrontal cortex, while balance and postural stability are functions of the cerebellum. Previous studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex and regions of the cerebellum are especially vulnerable to the effects of chronic alcoholism. Although these areas are spatially far apart (the former in the frontal lobes, the latter in the hindbrain), they are connected in a variety of ways, most particularly through the pons and the thalamus. An imaging study of 25 nonamnesic alcoholic men suggests that these connections may compound the damaging effects of alcohol on these brain regions, and that the cerebellum, through these connections, can exert a significant effect on functions of the prefrontal cortex.
[356] Sullivan, E. V. (2003). Compromised Pontocerebellar and Cerebellothalamocortical Systems: Speculations on Their Contributions to Cognitive and Motor Impairment in Nonamnesic Alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 27(9), 1409 - 1419.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/ace-amc090803.php
The body secretes a hormone called cortisol in response to stress. Areas of the brain involved in memory and problem-solving are responsive to cortisol. A new study has found impaired release of cortisol in recently detoxified alcoholics when performing two tasks known to induce stress: mental arithmetic problems and a "cold pressor" task, which requires submerging one hand in ice water for 90 seconds. This was associated with lower scores on measures of problem-solving ability and memory. The study also found that, among alcoholics, the number of withdrawals from alcohol was the strongest predictor of memory impairments, but not of problem-solving ability. The greater the alcoholics' relative cortisol levels were during alcohol withdrawal, the more likely they were to have low scores on one of the problem-solving tests. Nonalcoholic participants showed a connection between higher post-stress cortisol levels and impaired memory, a finding supported by earlier research.
[340] Errico, A. L., King A. C., Lovallo W. R., & Parsons O. A. (2002). Cortisol Dysregulation and Cognitive Impairment in Abstinent Male Alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 26(8), 1198 - 1204.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/cfta-air080902.php
Following animal research indicating that binge drinking damages the hippocampus, and other research showing that this learning and memory center is still developing during adolescence, a new study has investigated the effects of binge drinking on learning in university students. The study, involving 122 Spanish university students (aged 18-20), of whom half engaged in binge drinking, found a clear association between binge drinking and a lower ability to learn new verbal information.
Laparoscopic surgery makes intense demands on cognitive, perceptual and visuospatial abilities, rendering it particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol (and also making it a sensitive indicator). In a real-world type experiment, students and experts participated in a study looking at the effects of previous-night’s carousing on next-day’s performance on the Minimally Invasive Surgical Trainer Virtual Reality (for which all participants received training, providing baseline scores).
Binge drinking is, unfortunately, most common among adolescents (12-20 years). But this is a time when brains are still developing. Does this make them more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of excessive alcohol?
A study involving 48 adolescents, of whom 19 had been diagnosed with substance abuse/dependence, and 14 had a family history of substance abuse but no history of personal use, has found that greater alcohol use was associated with a significant decrease in attention and executive function (which is involved in planning and decision-making), while greater marijuana use was associated with poorer memory.
Data from 217 children from Inuit communities in Arctic Quebec (average age 11), of whom some had mothers that reported binge drinking during pregnancy, has revealed that the alcohol-exposed group, while similar to the control in accuracy and reaction time, showed a significant differences in their brains’ electrical activity while doing those tasks (a Go/No-go response inhibition task and a continuous recognition memory task).