Long-term heavy use of alcohol in puberty alters cortical moodiness and functional connectivity in the brain, per a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. These alterations were detected in physically and mentally healthy but heavy-drinking adolescents, who nonetheless did not fulfil the problem-solving criteria for a substance abuse disorder.
How Does Alcohol Affect In Delivering The Messages Throughout The body?
Instituting part of the Adolescents and Alcohol Study, the study evaluated the outcome of heavy drinkers on the electrical activity and quick-temperedness of the cortex. The study did a follow-up on 27 adolescents who had been heavy drinkers all over their adolescence, as well as on 25 age-matched, gender-matched, and education-matched directs with little or no alcohol use. The volunteers were 13 to 18 years old at the onset of the study.
At the age of 23-28, the participants' brain movement was analyzed using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) combined with real-time electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. In TMS, magnetic pulses are directed at the head to activate cortical neuronal cells. These magnetic pulses pass the skull and other tissues, and they are safe and pain-free for the person undergoing TMS. The method allows for an analysis of how different regions of the cortex respond to electrical stimulation and what the functional connectivity between the different regions are. Indirectly, the method also makes it possible to analyses chemical transmission, i.e. mediator function. The effects of long-term alcohol use haven't been studied among adolescents this before.
What Part Of The Brain Are Affected?
The study found that alcohol use produced significant modifications in both electrical and chemical neurotransmission among the study partakers, although none of them fulfilled the analytical criteria of a substance abuse disorder. Besides, in an earlier study that completed at the University of Eastern Finland, also within the Adolescents and Alcohol Study, cortical thinning was noticeable in young people who had been heavy drinkers during their adolescence.
