Binge drinking triggered by switch in brain, claim scientists

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Scientists have identified an area of grey matter that controls whether we decide to stop boozing or just carry on downing the wine, beer and spirits. When these brain cells were manipulated in rats, their attitude to alcohol changed.

And now the team hope their findings will lead to the development of new drugs that will help fight alcohol abuse.

Study leader Professor Markus Heilig said: “We discovered a small group of nerve cells in a small region of the brain. They are the difference between being able to put the brakes on in a normal manner and not being able to stop.

“I had not expected such a small group of nerve cells would be so decisive for this complex behaviour.

“And I could not have imagined it would be possible to demonstrate so clearly, by manipulating these cells from the outside, that they cause it.”

In 2020, alcohol killed more people in England and Wales than in any of the last 20 years.

While most people love the odd tipple, others don’t seem to know when to stop, leaving them vulnerable to dangers, such as liver and heart disease.

But choosing whether or not to have another drink is a complex procedure. 

The brain has a system that values pleasures, such as tasty food and booze, and drives us to seek more.

It also contains neurons that form a brake to balance the pros and cons. But that brake fails in heavy drinkers.

In the study, at Sweden’s Linkoping University, the rats pressed levers to obtain a small amount of alcohol.

After a while, they also started to receive an electric shock along with the booze.

Most of the rodents stopped drinking. But the brake did not work in about a third and they carried on boozing despite the shocking consequences.

However, when the brake was turned on using state-of-the-art molecular methods, the rats were able to stop drinking.

The team pinpointed a protein called PKC in the middle of the amygdala ‑ an area of the brain linked to reward ‑ which fuelled the alcohol consumption in the susceptible rats. 

They hope medications that target PKC can be developed to fight alcohol abuse.

There were 7,423 booze-related deaths last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Its figures also show deaths started to increase from March, when the first lockdown began.

UK guidelines advise people drink a maximum of 14 units of alcohol ‑ roughly equivalent to six large glasses of wine or six pints of beer ‑ per week.

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