14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper researchers at the Vanderbilt University published in the latest issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, they reveal that the brains of people who consume alcohol have to work extra hard to carry out the same task as their non-drinking peers.
The connection holds true regardless of the complexity of the task at hand. The team carried out the research using a basic finger-tapping exercise, which regularly does not require a huge amount of brain power to complete.
In order to arrive at this conclusion, investigators used a medical brain-imaging technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This method works by analyzing the flow of blood throughout the brain, reflecting higher neural activity in certain areas.
The level of activity is calculated based on the amount of blood that is required at specific locations. A neural process that is more intense in nature will require a lot more blood to sustain it. In this manner, experts can see which areas of the brain are involved in doing something, and to what extent.
In the finger-tapping exercise conducted at Vanderbilt, investigators determined that the activity of the cerebellum and the frontal lobe were not working as seamlessly together in alcoholics as in sober peers.
“The relationship was weaker in alcoholic people, even a week after they had stopped drinking,” explains Vanderbilt research assistant professor of radiology and radiological sciences, and lead author of the new paper, Dr. Baxter Rogers.
The investigator and his team used fMRI to look at the brains of 10 health individuals, as well as those of 10 chronic alcoholics. People in the second group were analyzed between 5 and 7 days after they had last consumed alcohol, as well as after all withdrawal symptoms had disappeared.
“We used fMRI because it measures the function of the entire brain painlessly and non-invasively. And it can identify specific brain regions that are involved in tasks, and that are affected in disease,” Rogers goes on to say, as quoted by PsychCentral.
What was remarkable about the new data is that they showed alcoholics used different portions of the brain to perform the basic finger-tapping exercises than their non-drinking counterparts. Researchers were not expecting to find such a result.
“This suggests that alcoholics needed to compensate for their brain injury. They may need to expend more effort, or at least a different brain response, to produce a normal outcome on simple tasks because they are unable to utilize the brain regions needed in an integrated fashion,” the team leader concludes.