Undergo the harms of alcoholism without touching a drop of alcohol. New American research suggests that just having a parent with an alcohol use disorder affects the way your brain changes from an active state to a resting state. Their results were published in the journal NeuroImage.
The brain reconfigures like a computer
Researchers have discovered that the brain reconfigures itself between performing various tasks, including between performing a mentally demanding task and resting. This reconfiguration is similar to that of a computer. “When you close a program, a computer needs to delete it from memory, rearrange the cache, and maybe clear some temporary files., analyzes Joaquín Goñi who participated in the study. This helps the computer to prepare for the next task. “
This computer analogy is not found in people with a family history of alcohol use disorder. Researchers have observed that this reconfiguration does not occur in their brains. Although this lack of transition between two tasks does not seem to affect the way in which a person performs the mentally demanding task themselves, it could lead to behaviors associated with addiction. In particular, the subjects of study without this cerebral process showed greater impatience in awaiting the rewards, which is behavior associated with dependence.
No reconfiguration in children of alcoholics
To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed the brains of 54 participants, half of whom had a parent with an alcohol use disorder. They measured their brain activity while performing a mentally demanding task on a computer – they had to unpredictably refrain from pressing a left or right key – then when they rested while looking at a fixed point on the screen. The researchers also observed, without measuring brain activity, how participants responded to the rewards, asking questions such as whether they wanted $ 20 now or $ 200 in a year.
The researchers observed in the results the different models of cerebral connectivity between the completion of the mentally demanding task and the entry into the state of rest. Data from people without a history of family alcoholism revealed that these patterns of cerebral connectivity reconfigured within the first three minutes after completing the task in a process involving multiple parts of the brain, before disappearing in the fourth minute of rest. “These brain regions speak to each other and are very strongly involved in the task, even if at this stage the task is already finished. It almost seems like an echo in time of what happened ”observed David Kareken, a researcher who participated in the study.
For people with a family history of alcoholism, lack of brain reconfiguration adds to other risk factors compatible with the development of addictive behavior, such as alcoholism. Depression and impatience for reward are at the forefront of these factors. “In the past, we have assumed that a person who does not drink excessively is a healthy control for a study. However, this work shows that a person with just a family history of alcoholism can also have subtle differences in how their brains work. ”, concludes Joaquín Goñi.
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