How does chronic alcohol use affect the brain's default mode network and its role in self-referential thought?

Oct 16, 2012 ... Alcohol is a depressant, but it's also an indirect stimulant, and plays a few other roles that might surprise you. "Alcohol is an indirect GABA agonist," says Koob. GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, and GABA-like drugs are used to suppress spasms. Jan 6, 2025 ... Alcohol produces chemical imbalances in specific neurocircuits and can be neurotoxic. Chronic heavy drinking can, for example, damage brain ... Feb 21, 2023 ... It does this by both reducing the brain's GABA (lessening calm feelings) and increasing glutamate (making us feel more anxious). Together this ... Jan 8, 2025 ... Alcohol tolerance may not decrease with age, but older adults may experience increased alcohol effects because of changes in brain function ... Mar 4, 2022 ... The research, using a dataset of more than 36,000 adults, revealed that going from one to two drinks a day was associated with changes in ... Alcohol affects how brain chemicals called 'neurotransmitters' work. The main neurotransmitters affected by alcohol are GABA and Glutamate. These work in ... Aug 23, 2018 ... Children with FAS have, on average, smaller brains than normal, and defects in the frontal lobe, the corpus callosum, the cerebellum, the hippocampus, and the ... Feb 15, 2023 ... Home » Alcohol Abuse and Addiction » How Alcohol Causes Brain Damage ... This does depend highly upon the type of alcohol-related brain injury. Sep 29, 2023 ... Does It Help You Sleep? Alcohol's slow-down effect on your brain can make you drowsy, so you may doze off more easily. But you won't ...