The Effects of Different Amounts of Alcohol on Neurotransmission in

Prefrontal Cortex that Affects Ones Attention

Kelly Liang
Mills High School

Introduction
Alcohol has been known for disturbing peoples ability to make decision, retrieve past memory, and control their emotions and actions, which are guided by frontal and temporal lobe.
Chronic consumption of alcohol can lead to cerebral atrophy and abnormality in plasticity, although little amount of alcohol consumption can actually improve short-term memory and reasoning.
The level of alcohol sensitivity correlates with the extent of alcohol intoxication effects and physiological changes.
Hypothesis: The amount of alcohol consumption correlates negatively with the extent of correctness of a participants performance, which is induced by alcohol-induced changes that happen to neurotransmitters in brain, in an attention task.

Method and Procedure

All participants, ages range from 21 to 35, must have a clean substance abuse history and good health conditions without any major conditions (including pregnancy) and have a moderate amount of drinks each week (2-15 drinks per week). They are selected randomly from newspaper advertisements.
Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B): It has been used in previous studies to test out prefrontal functions and cognitive performance of the alcohol-dependent patients. The TMT-B is a measure of visualconceptual and skills, with a focus on divided attention and mental flexibility. The participant is instructed to connect randomly-arranged circles each of which
contains either a number from 1 to 13 or a letter from A to L as quickly as possible. The dependent measure is the total time (in seconds) required to complete the task.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive a high dose, moderate, or placebo dose vodka and tonic beverage.
Electrodes are put onto participants scalps to see if there are any other regions of the brain are active besides the frontal cortex during the task.

Results and Discussion

The amount of alcohol consumption correlates negatively with the correctness of a participants performance; As the amount of alcohol consumption increases (higher dose), the quality of the participants performance decreases.
The frontal lobe activity can be affected by the increase in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a type of inhibitory neurotransmitters that restrict the actions of glutamate and its receptor, NMDA.
Increase in GABA thereby depress ones cognition and motor skills.
Small amounts of alcohol have been shown to interfere with glutamate action. This interference could affect several brain functions, including memory.
Chronic alcohol consumption increases glutamate receptor sites in the hippocampus. During alcohol withdrawal, glutamate receptors that have adapted to the longterm presence of alcohol may become overactive, and this hypo-activity has been repeatedly linked to neuronal death, which is manifested by conditions such as stroke and seizures.

References
Bartholow, Bruce D., et al. "Effects of alcohol consumption and alcohol susceptibility on cognition: a psychophysiological examination." Biological Psychology 64.1 (2003): 167-190.
Loeber, Sabine, et al. "Impairment of cognitive abilities and decision making after chronic use of alcohol: the impact of multiple detoxifications." Alcohol and Alcoholism (2009): agp030.
Oscar-Berman, Marlene, and Ksenija Marinkovic. "Alcoholism and the brain: an overview." Alcohol Research and Health 27.2 (2003): 125-133.
Zeigler, Donald W., et al. "The neurocognitive effects of alcohol on adolescents and college students." Preventive medicine 40.1 (2005): 23-32.

Correlation Between the Amount of Alcohol and the Time to Finish TMT-B
120
100
80

Time (Seconds)

60
40
20
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Amount of Alcohol (g/kg)

0.7

0.8

0.9