Drinking Dampens Ability to Feel Fear

Aaron White, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University who studies alcohol abuse, said the study is "excellent" and smartly relies on intravenously administering alcohol, a technique that allows easy adjustments of the subjects' blood-alcohol levels.

In similar studies, White added, "researchers should be able to learn a great deal about how the effects of alcohol on the brain change with both age and increasing years of use."

Other scientists could also study what happens in the brain when alcoholics and nonalcoholics look at images associated with alcohol like beer cans, bars and alcohol ads.

Hommer said researchers are thinking about other possible studies. "The one thing that might immediately be useful is that you may be able to use this as a way to test out drugs designed to decrease people's tendency to abuse alcohol."

The researchers are already testing their approach in people who are heavy drinkers to see if there is any difference in how they react to alcohol, Hommer said. "People become tolerant to some of the effects of alcohol with repeated use, and we want to see if we can see that" in the brain.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has more on alcohol use.

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