Moderate-to-heavy alcohol intake is associated with differences in synchronization of brain activity during rest and mental rehearsal

Abstract

In alcohol-dependent individuals, synchronization of brain activity is different from that in non-alcohol-dependent individuals as reflected by EEG differences at alpha and beta frequencies . These EEG differences may not only be related to long-term alcohol intake but also to genetic factors that are associated with alcohol dependence. Thus, it is not known what the pure effect of long-term alcohol intake on synchronization of brain activity is. Therefore, we investigated whether EEG synchronization differs between light (0.5 -6 drinks per week), moderate (7 -20 drinks per week), and heavy (21 -53 drinks per week) drinkers. All participants (49 males and 47 females) were free of a personal and family history of alcohol dependence. Eyes-closed EEG was recorded at rest and during mental rehearsal of pictures. EEG synchronization was determined by computing Synchronization Likelihood for six frequency bands (0.5 -4 Hz, 4 -8 Hz, [8][9][10][11][12][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Both male and female heavy drinkers displayed a loss of lateralization in alpha (8 -12 Hz) and slow-beta (12 -20 Hz) synchronization. In addition, moderately and heavily drinking males had lower fast-beta (20 -30 Hz) synchronization than lightly drinking males. It is concluded that both male and female drinkers who drink 21 alcoholic drinks per week or more have impaired synchronization of brain activity during rest and mental rehearsal at alpha and beta frequencies as compared to individuals who drink less. As individuals with a personal or family history of alcohol dependence were excluded, the confounding effects of genetic factors related to alcohol dependence on synchronization of brain activity were minimized. D

The Influence of Marijuana Use on Neurocognitive Functioning in Adolescents

“…Importantly, adolescents with alcohol use disorders demonstrate functional brain abnormalities [87], and even moderate alcohol use may impact neural functioning [88]. Yet the inclusion of marijuana users with other substance use histories maintains representativeness in the sample, allowing for better generalization to the population of adolescent marijuana users.…”

EEG Biofeedback as a Treatment for Substance Use Disorders: Review, Rating of Efficacy and Recommendations for Further Research

“…A high level of coherence between two EEG signals indicates a coactivation of neuronal populations and provides information on functional coupling between these areas (Franken, Stam, Hendriks, & van den Brink, 2004). De Bruin et al (2004) and De Bruin, Stam, Bijl, Verbaten, and Kenemans (2006 investigated the pure effects of alcohol intake on synchronization of brain activity while minimizing the confounding influence of genetic factors related to alcohol dependence. They showed that heavily drinking students with a negative family history had stronger EEG synchronization at theta and gamma frequencies than lightly drinking students with a negative family history.…”

“…Winterer, Enoch, et al (2003) and Winterer, Smolka, et al (2003) described higher left-temporal alpha and slow-beta coherence and higher slowbeta coherence at right-temporal and frontal electrode pairs in alcohol-dependent male and female participants. De Bruin et al (2006) showed that moderate to heavy alcohol consumption is associated with differences in synchronization of brain activity during rest and mental rehearsal. Heavy drinkers displayed a loss of hemispheric asymmetry of EEG synchronization in the alpha and slow-beta band.…”

Graph-theoretic Indices of Evaluating Brain Network Synchronization: Application in an Alcoholism Paradigm

“…The fact that alcoholics have cognitive deficits in performing complex coordinated tasks suggests some related differentiation in brain functional connectivity as expressed by synchronization between different neural assemblies [2]. Synchronous oscillations of certain types of such assemblies in different frequency bands captured by both linear and nonlinear methods have been successfully used in the past as indices of cerebral engagement in cognitive tasks or brain pathologies [3].…”