EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC DRINK LINKED TO BRAIN DAMAGE
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Joseph Omoniyi
Study have shown that excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks is mostly linked to long-term brain damage, loss of memory, inability to read emotions.
According to a study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, even moderate alcohol intake is linked to brain damage and worse mental skills.
The author of the first study, Dr Ksenija Marinkovic revealed that, like most body organs, the brain is vulnerable to injury from excessive alcohol consumption.
According to him, most common deficits include difficulties with memory, reduced reasoning and problem solving abilities, and emotional abnormalities. Naturally, alcoholics are at a much higher risk of brain damage. One aspect of this is a deficit in reading facial emotions.
Dr Marinkovic further explained that, “Alcoholics have problems in judging the emotional expressions on people’s faces.
This can result in miscommunication during emotionally charged situations and lead to unnecessary conflicts and difficulties in interpersonal relationships.
The resulting negative repercussions can, in turn, contribute to increased drinking.”
30 people who were recovering alcoholics were involved in the study. Their brains were scanned while they were given a test of how good they were at reading emotions from faces. The results showed that recovering alcoholics did worse. The area of the brain important for processing emotions — the amygdala — did not respond as strongly in recovering alcoholics.
“…deficient activation of limbic structures inside the temporal lobes – the amygdala and hippocampus – may underlie emotional difficulties in abstinent long-term alcoholics.
Whereas nonalcoholic adult men showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional expressions, the alcoholics showed decreased activation in these brain areas, and furthermore responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions,” Dr Marinkovic explained.
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