From: gemini23x@gmail.com   
      
   Long-Term Effects Of Alcohol Impair Brain's Pathways That Underlie Impulse   
   Control   
   Nov 18, 2014 03:58 PM   
   By Stephanie Castillo   
   Brain   
   The more (and longer) a person drinks, the more damage they'll inflict on the   
   parts of their brain controlling impulse and judgment. pchow98/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0   
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   The idea alcohol has negative effects on the brain isn't anything new.   
   Previous studies, however, have only measured these effects through behavior   
   and post-mortem studies -- not scans of the actual brain. A new study   
   published in Alcoholism: Clinical &    
   Experimental Research, the official journal of the Research Society on   
   Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on   
   Alcoholism, finally makes use of the technology to gain a deeper understanding   
   of the long-term effects alcohol has    
   on white brain matter.   
      
   "Frontal white matter tracts are the pathways that connect the frontal lobes   
   to the rest of the brain," study co-author Catherine Brawn Fortier, a   
   neuropsychologist and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and   
   assistant professor at Harvard    
   Medical School, explained in a press release. "The frontal cortex is the   
   integration center for all other parts of the brain that are important to   
   behavior and cognitive function. These pathways support self-monitoring,   
   planning, judgment, and reasoning."   
    Not only that, but Fortier added these frontal pathways drive the ability to   
   learn and change new patterns and behaviors.   
      
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   By using high-resolution structural magnetic resonance (MR) scans to create   
   and assess a 3D structure of "global and regional white matter," Fortier and   
   her team could see reductions in middle-aged recovering alcoholics' white   
   matter pathways compared to    
   non-alcoholics. Recovering alcoholics included participants who were five   
   years sober after 25 years of alcohol abuse. Damage to the brain's white   
   matter was a result of higher quantity and exposure. Basically, the more you   
   drink, the more damage you do    
   to your brain.   
      
      
   Gray matter is negatively affected by years of heavy drinking, too. Gray   
   matter is a major component of the central nervous system, and it's a large   
   group consisting of neurons responsible for brain function. The structure of   
   this group processes the    
   information from our sensory organs and other gray regions of the brain. And   
   like white matter, reduced gray matter worsens a person's planning,   
   prioritizing, impulse, and memory.   
      
   The message is clear: The longer and more a person drinks, the worse their   
   control and judgement is, lessening the chances of sobriety as they get older.   
   Heavy drinking hurts the brain's ability to function and heal all at once. The   
   time to get help for    
   alcoholism is now.   
      
   "Our data demonstrated possible recovery of tissue of the left inferior   
   frontal gyrus with maintained abstinence in those alcoholics who successfully   
   stopped drinking prior to their fifth decade," Fortier said. "This finding is   
   important because it    
   demonstrates a possible critical threshold; excessive heavy drinking after a   
   certain age -- our data indicated age 50 -- may lead to permanent brain   
   changes, whereas earlier in life there may be more chance for brain recovery   
   with sobriety."   
      
      
   Source: Frontier C, Keane TM, Leritz E, et al. Widespread Effects of Alcohol   
   on White Matter Microstructure. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.   
   2014.   
      
      
   http://www.medicaldaily.com/long-term-effects-alcohol-impair-bra   
   ns-pathways-underlie-impulse-control-311242   
      
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