Why alcohol makes us do stupid things
A few glasses of alcohol - enough to reach the drink-drive limit - are enough to rob drinkers of their fears so they are more likely to take risks, concludes a brain scan study that provides a vivid insight into "Dutch courage."
Examples of the faces participants in the alcohol study were shown
Examples of the faces participants in the study were shown
The Government's Know Your Limits TV anti drunkenness advertisement shows a young man, imagining he is dressed as a superhero, who climbs some scaffolding but slips and falls.
As he lies broken on the ground, a voiceover states: "Too much alcohol makes you feel invincible when you're most vulnerable."
Today, in the Journal of Neuroscience, a brain imaging study reveals why people are more prepared to take risks when they are intoxicated, marking the first study of its kind on alcohol's effect on the response of neuronal circuits to threats.
Working with a dozen healthy participants who drink socially, Drs Jodi Gilman and Daniel Hommer at the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, used a scanner method called functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the resulting changes in activity in emotion-processing brain regions................................................
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