According to a research team from Duke University, a young adult’s susceptibility for alcohol abuse or engaging in risky sexual behaviors can be detected using brain scans.
The team of researchers aimed to understand communication between the brain, genome, and environment that are the basis for engagement in risky behaviors predicting mental illness including depression, anxiety, and addiction. “By knowing the biology that predicts risk, we hope to eventually change the biology — or at least meet that biology with other forces to stem the risk,” says senior author Ahmad Hariri, Duke professor of psychology and neuroscience, as quoted by CTV News.
The team used non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the ventral striatum, the area of the brain which seeks reward, and the amygdala, the area that weighs the consequences of risks.
The team used data from the scans of 200 participants and 759 students whose average age was 19, from the data researchers determined that an overcharged ventral striatum in combination with a lazy amygdala is a recipe for problem drinking. Researchers also found that having an underactive ventral striatum and a turbo-charged amygdala was also an indicator of problem drinking, according to the study.
According to Hariri, if there’s high activity in both areas or low activity in both areas there’s no problem, however when the two are not in sync it could incite a drinking problem. Hariri also added that the underlying causes of a drinking problem could vary in both instances.
Alcohol abuse has the ability to stem impulsively from a hyperactive ventral striatum, and when combined with a low-energy amygdala, it could cause the individual to be less likely to curb their behavior. However, a ventral striatum with low demands for reward could make an individual feel as if their life is depressing, and a hyperactive amygdala could make the individual extremely sensitive to stress which could result in drinking alcohol as a coping mechanism
According to a separate study, the equilibrium or lack thereof between the amygdala and the ventral striatum could also indicate sexual behaviors. In the study, researchers worked with a sample of to heterosexual male and female participants, surveying them for their number of sexual partners acquired over a time period of 11 months. The study found that men who had had a highly active ventral striatum and a low activity amygdala had more sexual partners than those who had a balanced brain. On the other hand, women who were more promiscuous had high levels of activity in both regions, which indicated that an inclination for seeking thrills and sensitivity to threat which go hand in hand. “It’s not really clear why that is. One possibility is that this amygdala signal is representing different things in men and women,” says Hariri.
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The post Study Suggests Brain Scans Could Show Risk Levels for Alcohol Abuse appeared first on Harbor Village Florida.
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