Short-term alcohol intake can increase the activity of functional connections across the human brain when it is at rest, according to research published Oct 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Panagiotis Bamidis and colleagues from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Previous studies have shown that alcohol intake increases transmission of signals by the neurotransmitter GABA, present in 40% of the connections between nerve cells in the brain. Here, the researchers monitored resting brain activity in healthy social drinkers who had consumed one drink, and found a significant increase in the activity of these connections. According to the authors, this increase in baseline brain activity is at least partially due to the alcohol-induced increase in GABA-mediated signal transmission.
Citation: Lithari C, Klados MA, Pappas C, Albani M, Kapoukranidou D, et al. (2012) Alcohol Affects the Brain's Resting-State Network in Social Drinkers. PLoS ONE 7(10): e48641. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048641
Financial Disclosure: This work has been partially funded by the Committee for Biomedical Research, Central Health Council of the Greek Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (project 83785). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends):
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048641
Journal
PLoS ONE