Alcohol and the brain

Question 1

How does alcohol effect brain chemistry?

Answer 1

By altering the levels of neurotransmitters

Question 2

What are neurotransmitters?

Answer 2

chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body that control thought processes, behaviour and emotion (in case you had forgotten)

Question 3

What do excitatory neurotransmitters do?

Answer 3

they stimulate brain electrical activity

Question 4

What do inhibitory neurotransmitters do?

Answer 4

they decrease brain electrical activit

Question 5

Alcohol increases the effects of which kind of neurotransmitter?

Answer 5

Inhibatory, GABA

Question 6

Remember it is a depressant hypnotic

Answer 6

Remember it is a depressant hypnotic

Question 7

What does GABA cause?

Answer 7

causes the sluggish movements and slurred speech we associate with alcohol

Question 8

What does alcohol inhibit?

Answer 8

the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate

Question 9

Alcohol increases the amount of the chemical WHAT in the brain’s reward centre?

Answer 9

Dopamine, which creates the feeling of pleasure that occurs when someone takes a drink.

Question 10

What is the VTA?

Answer 10

ventral tegmental area

Question 11

What is a DA neuron?

Answer 11

Dopaminergic neuron

Question 12

What is the NP?

Answer 12

Nigrostriatal pathway

Question 13

Acute ethanol intake can increase DA neuron discharge in the NP and VTA; this discharge is reduced during alcohol withdrawal and restored after restarting ethanol intake (Ma & Zhu, 2014).

Answer 13

Acute ethanol intake can increase DA neuron discharge in the NP and VTA; this discharge is reduced during alcohol withdrawal and restored after restarting ethanol intake (Ma & Zhu, 2014).

Question 14

Short-term alcohol exposure tilts the balance toward inhibition by both enhancing the function of inhibitory neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (i.e., GABA, glycine, and adenosine)

It additionally decreases the function of excitatory neurotransmitters (i.e., glutamate and aspartate).

Answer 14

Short-term alcohol exposure tilts the balance toward inhibition by both enhancing the function of inhibitory neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (i.e., GABA, glycine, and adenosine)

It additionally decreases the function of excitatory neurotransmitters (i.e., glutamate and aspartate).

Question 15

Alcohol stimulates the activity of endogenous opioid peptides, leading indirectly to the activation of dopaminergic neurons

Answer 15

Alcohol stimulates the activity of endogenous opioid peptides, leading indirectly to the activation of dopaminergic neurons