[ad_1]
reIn your brain, there is a very important tissue called white matter. Scientists have only realized for a decade that white matter is not a pbadive infrastructure, but a pile of nerve fibers that affect the learning and functioning of the brain. Importantly, scientists have recently discovered that alcohol has a detrimental effect on white matter, even after a person has stopped drinking, reporting their news on Tuesday. JAMA Psychiatry.
Previous studies have shown that alcohol further aggravates white matter structure, even if a person drinks only moderately, which can lead to accelerated cognitive decline with aging. This new study is unique in that it is one of the first to examine the state of white matter after a person has become sober. And the prospects are not good.
The main author, Santiago Cbads, Ph.D., principal investigator at the Institute of Neuroscience in Spain, announced Tuesday that until now "no one could believe that in the 39, absence of alcohol, brain damage would progress.
The study focused on two groups: humans and rats. The human group included 90 male patients over the age of 46 who had been hospitalized for an alcohol-related disorder. There was also a comparison group of 36 healthy men, averaging 41 years old. The researchers examined the brain of patients with diffusion-weighted MRI and found that even though the group of 90 men had consumed alcohol for six weeks, there were still negative signs of change in the substance. white of their brain.
To understand the exact nature of these alterations, scientists looked at rats trained to depend on alcohol as well. After a period of abstinence, the rats' brains exhibited a generalized change in the white matter, more intense in the sections called corpus callosum and fimbria. The first is the bridge between the left and right sides of the brain, while the second contains nerve fibers that communicate with the hippocampus.
The hippocampus, a brain structure essential for learning and memory, is well known to be affected by heavy consumption of alcohol. Studies have shown that chronic consumption of alcohol reduces the total volume of the hippocampus, making it more difficult for an individual to retain memories, but also to learn new things. Until now, it was not known whether the hippocampus healed itself after heavy drinkers stopped consuming alcohol.
It now appears that the damage caused by alcohol is at least still noticeable after six weeks of not drinking. However, this team is considering further research: they want to discover the underlying process behind this change and look at what happens in the brain when people with alcohol abuse problems become sober. Research shows that after detoxification, the brain can rebound, but it is clear that things are not fully cured.
Partial summary:
Importance: Although the harmful effects of alcohol on the brain are widely recognized, the structural changes observed are very heterogeneous and diagnostic markers to characterize brain damage induced by alcohol, especially at the beginning of abstinence, are lacking. This heterogeneity, probably related to comorbidity factors in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), implicates a direct link between brain alterations and the pathophysiology of alcohol abuse. ;alcohol. Translational studies on animal models can help fill this causal gap.
Conclusions and relevance: Using a translational DTI approach, comparable white matter alterations were observed in patients with AUD and rats with long-term alcohol consumption. In humans and rats, an evolution of DTI alterations toward early abstinence (2 to 6 weeks) suggests an underlying process that evolves shortly after the end of alcohol consumption.
[ad_2]
Source link
