Impulsive Actions, Alcoholism and Stress Response: Study Says It's Linked to the Genes
Cravings for alcohol. Impulsive actions. High levels of anxiety. Researchers believe they may all be connected through a genetic variation, the subject of a recent study from the University of Michigan Health System.
Two areas that set the study apart from similar research in the area of genetics and alcoholism: is its focus on the specific area of the brain that is acted upon by genetic influences, and the exploration of how activity in this area of the brain manifests in a person’s impulsive actions or alcoholic tendencies.
In recent news summaries of the study, researchers said the key is the insula, a part of the cerebral cortex. The insula may be the vehicle through which a person with a variation of the GABRA2 gene shows impulsive actions or tendencies to crave and abuse alcohol.
To further understand how the insula reacts to addictive situations, researchers used fMRI imaging to note the ways blood movement differed among people when they were presented with a task to do that involved the expectation of either winning money or losing it. People with one type of the GABRA2 gene had increased levels of activity in the insula and increased rates of impulsive reactions when exposed to stress than did people with other GABRA2 variations.
In the study, nearly 450 individuals participated, and most had at least someone in their family with a history of alcohol addiction or dependence. The participants who had specific variations of the GABRA2 gene had higher tendencies to react impulsively when anxiety or stress arose, and to develop a dependence on alcohol. This was found to be even more true for the females in the study as compared to the males, supporting previous research that indicates the female response to anxiety leans more toward alcohol abuse than does men’s response.
Researchers hope the study will help expose the ways underlying genetic tendencies may impact a person’s likelihood for alcohol dependence or addiction, years before that addiction occurs – but they also say that developing an addiction to alcohol is also linked with a person’s family and environmental conditions, aside from genetics.
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