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Hangover: Scientists pinpoint part of the brain that suggest it is vital to stop drinking too much

By FnF Desk | PUBLISHED: 28, Jun 2014, 17:33 pm IST | UPDATED: 28, Jun 2014, 17:40 pm IST

Hangover: Scientists pinpoint part of the brain that suggest it is vital to stop drinking too much Most of us know that feeling, the morning after the night before, when we wake up and say ‘never again’.

Scientists have now discovered the area of the brain that gives us that hangover feeling - and suggest it is vital to stopping us drinking too much, too often.

Neuroscientists at the University of Utah hope their discovery could lead to better treatments for alcoholics.

Professor Sharif Taha, who led the study in rats, said: ‘In people, escalation of intake is what eventually separates a social drinker from someone who becomes an alcoholic.’

The research, published in the journal PLOS One, found that when a region of the brain called the lateral habenula is chronically inactivated in rats, they repeatedly drink to excess and are less able to learn from the experience.

The scientists think the lateral habenula is activated by bad experiences, suggesting that when it is faulty or underactive people may be more inclined to repeat unhealthy behaviour.

They gave rats access to a strong alcoholic drink over a period of several weeks.

The animals which had a disabled lateral habenula drank more heavily than those which did not.

Prof Taha added: ‘These rats drink amounts that are quite substantial. Legally they would be drunk if they were driving.

‘It’s the same kind of learning that mediates your response in food poisoning. You taste something and then you get sick, and then of course you avoid that food in future meals.

‘Yet rats with an inactivated lateral habenula sought out the juice more than control animals, even though it meant a repeat of the bad experience.

‘If we can understand the brain circuits that control sensitivity to alcohol’s aversive effects, then we can start to get a handle on who may become a problem drinker.’

The group’s findings may help explain results from previous clinical investigations demonstrating that men who were less sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol drank more heavily, and were more likely to become problem drinkers later in life.

The researchers think the lateral habenula likely works in one of two ways.. The region may regulate how badly an individual feels after over-drinking.

Alternatively, it may control how well an individual learns from their bad experience.

Co-author Andrew Haack added: ‘The way I look at it is the rewarding effects of drinking alcohol compete with the aversive effects.

‘When you take the aversive effects away, which is what we did when we inactivated the lateral habenula, the rewarding effects gain more purchase, and so it drives up drinking behaviour.’  #Source: The Daily Mail
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