Alcohol usage is likewise carefully associated with state of mind disorders such as serious depression and generalized anxiety disorder.
Alcohol changes anxiety-related synchronized brain activity.
According to a recent study released in the journal eNeuro, alcohol changes the integrated brain activity in the amygdala of mice, but in a different way for female and male mice.
Alcoholism is often associated with stress and anxiety and sadness, and a brain location referred to as the amygdala is linked in both. Both rodents and humans are prone to the results of oscillations, or shifts in integrated brain activity, between areas like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. It is unknown, however, how alcohol might affect the amygdala network and influence behavior.
Alcohol modifies amygdala activity differently in male and female mice. Credit: DiLeo et al., eNeuro 2022
Alyssa DiLeo and her team administered alcohol to mice and measured corresponding changes in oscillatory states in the amygdala. Alcohol affected amygdala oscillations differently in male and female mice, specifically after repetitive alcohol administration. In truth, the oscillatory state of women did not alter at all after repeated alcohol administration.
The researchers repeated the experiment in mice without a subunit of a receptor connected to alcohol usage and stress and anxiety, which induced traits of the female network activity in males. These results show alcohol can set off the amygdala to switch activity states, which might drive modifications in afraid and distressed habits.
Reference: “Sex Differences in the Alcohol-Mediated Modulation of BLA Network States” by Alyssa DiLeo, Pantelis Antonoudiou, Spencer Ha and Jamie L. Maguire, 4 July 2022, eNeuro.DOI: 10.1523/ ENEURO.0010-22.2022.
The research study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.