Brain Cell Stimulation may Help Stop Binge Drinking

A recent study by researchers from the University of Buffalo shows that by stimulating brain cells, scientists may be able to actively stop binge drinking. According to the study authors, by administering light in order to stimulate the neurons of mice models, the creatures were actually able to kick their their binge drinking habit, via background information from the study.

Researchers trained the animals to drink alcohol until they started to binge drink in a similar way to humans. Then, they used the technology of optogenetics, which examines the neurons in the living tissue of creatures. The researchers stimulated the mice neuron's via light cells in order to discover that the stimulation alone was enough to stop them from binge drinking.

"By stimulating certain dopamine neurons in a precise pattern, resulting in low but prolonged levels of dopamine release, we could prevent the rats from binging. The rats just flat out stopped drinking," first author Caroline E. Bass, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences explained, according to Medical Xpress. "For decades, we have observed that particular brain regions light up or become more active in an alcoholic when he or she drinks or looks at pictures of people drinking, for example, but we didn't know if those changes in brain activity actually governed the alcoholic's behavior."

These findings could potentially provide new treatments for humans with severe alcoholism or neurological conditions, the study authors note. 

"We can target dopamine neurons in a part of the brain called the nigrostriatal pathway, which is what degenerates in Parkinson's disease," Bass said, via the health news organization. "If we could infuse a viral vector into that part of the brain, we could target potentially therapeutic genes to the dopamine neurons involved in Parkinson's. And by infusing the virus into other areas of the brain, we could potentially deliver therapeutic genes to treat other neurological diseases and mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and depression."

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More information regarding the study can be found via Frontiers in Neuroscience.