New report shows why drunk people favour a fight
Wednesday, 30 Apr 2008 00:01
Alcohol consumption makes social drinkers 'less perceptivel of threats
A new study has shown why alcohol consumption makes social drinkers are more likely to become involved in a fight.
It found that after an evening's drinking, a person is more disposed to seek potentially-rewarding situations without considering the associated risks.
The study of a dozen healthy people who drink socially found that after consuming alcohol, activity increases in the areas of the brain associated with reward while the drinker's sensitivity to detecting threats is simultaneously reduced.
As part of the first human brain imaging study on the effects of alcohol, participants consumed both alcohol and a placebo on two separate days and were shown images of fearful facial expressions.
While during the placebo days activity increased in the amygdala, insula, and parahippocampal gyrus - regions of the brain associated with fear - no discernible increase was noticeable on the alcohol consumption days.
The research, published in the the Journal of Neuroscience, also proved that the brain's reward system is activated through alcohol consumption, a feature found with all abusive drugs.
"The key finding of this study is that after alcohol exposure, threat-detecting brain circuits can't tell the difference between a threatening and non-threatening social stimulus," explained Dr Marina Wolf at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
"At one end of the spectrum, less anxiety might enable us to approach a new person at a party. But at the other end of the spectrum, we may fail to avoid an argument or a fight.
"By showing that alcohol exerts this effect in normal volunteers by acting on specific brain circuits, these study results make it harder for someone to believe that risky decision-making after alcohol 'doesn't apply to me'," she added.