MRI scans reveal why people become aggressive when they drink alcohol
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It has been confirmed that long-term ingestion of large amounts of alcohol causes the cerebrum to atrophy and affect personality and behavior, but even temporary alcohol intake can be violent or aggressive. There are people who do. Researchers, on the other hand, have considered theories such as 'because alcohol makes it difficult to suppress emotions', but clinically as to 'why do people become violent when they drink alcohol?' The experimental results have been announced.
The neural correlates of alcohol-related aggression | SpringerLink
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-017-0558-0
Why alcohol makes people violent, solved by scientists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/02/12/alcohol-makes-people-violent-solved-scientists/
Researchers have traditionally believed that drinking alcohol affects the prefrontal cortex and changes emotions and behavior. However, although experiments have been conducted to observe how the cerebral atrophy is caused by long-term ingestion of alcohol and to analyze the blood components when alcohol is ingested, it occurs during temporary alcohol ingestion. No experiments have been conducted on brain activity.
Therefore, a research group of Dr. Thomas Benson of the University of New South Wales in Australia conducted an experiment by scanning the brain of a subject who ingested alcohol with MRI and measuring the blood flow. In this experiment, two groups were selected: a subject who actually ingested alcohol (alcohol ingestor) and a subject who actually ingested a non-alcoholic drink believing that it was 'alcohol-containing liquor' (placebo ingestor). Preparation. Weigh and body fat of individual subjects are measured, alcohol drinkers are allowed to consume alcohol intake that would be drunk driving under Australian law, and placebo drinkers are to drink vodka-like drinks with the smell of alcohol. No.
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After that, the subjects were subjected to MRI and played the game with the explanation 'play against a person in another place'. First, before starting the game, the subject chose from four levels of noise in the MRI as a punishment game to give to the opponent who lost the game if he won the game. The game starts after selecting a punishment game, but in reality all the opponents in the game are computer programs. The subject who lost after the game received a punishment game, and the winner was informed of the noise level of the punishment game selected in advance by the opponent's computer.
As a result of repeating the above experiments, there is a significant difference in the noise level of the punishment game set before the start of the game between alcohol consumers and placebo consumers, and alcohol consumers tend to choose louder noise. There was. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between alcohol inoculators and placebo inoculators in their feelings about the noise level selected by the computer that was the opponent of the game.
In addition, the aggression of the alcohol inoculator was confirmed in the experiment, and when the brain of the alcohol inoculator who selected the punishment game was measured by MRI, the activity was attenuated in the prefrontal cortex and other reward systems. It was confirmed. On the other hand, the activity of the hippocampus, which controls memory, has resulted in more activity in alcohol inoculators than in placebo inoculators.
Based on these results, researchers conclude that temporary alcohol intake suppresses activities such as the prefrontal cortex and makes people's behavior more aggressive. Dr. Benson said, 'This experiment had to be small due to budgetary issues, but by conducting a larger experiment, even a small amount of alcohol will affect the human brain. It will be clearer in more detail whether to give. '
by Tony
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