A study carried out in England identified that alcohol consumption was associated with a general decrease in brain volume, something that can cause a reduction in neuronal activity.
The research, led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the journal Nature Communications, analyzed nearly 37,000 brain images from the UK Biobank, a health database in England. This information was from adults who were between 40 and 69 years of age.
“The study has a large number of people and this helps us to understand a phenomenon that we would not be able to with 100 or 200 participants, so it helps to clarify that there is a mechanism of brain aggression”, says Edson Amaro, neuroradiologist, researcher at the Instituto do Brain and Superintendent of Data Science and Analytics at Einstein.
The researchers looked at the effect that different levels of alcohol consumption — considering a daily intake of at least 10 ml and up to 40 ml — had on brain volume. A mechanism was used in which the effect on the volume of the white and gray regions was analyzed.
“The white matter is like the brain’s connection system through fibers that connect one part to another and also connect the brain to the rest of the body”, says Amaro.
According to him, it is in the white matter that the extensions of neurons and glial cells are found, responsible for sustaining brain activities.
The nucleus of neurons is concentrated in the gray matter. It is in these regions that the information coming from the connections between these cells that take place in the white region of the organ is processed.
In the study, the researchers observed that alcohol resulted in a decrease in the mass of both white matter and ash. However, this result was not very significant.
“It is interesting to note that the magnitude of this effect was small. It was observed that around 0.3% to 0.4% of the total variation in a region is explained by alcohol in relation to any other variable, such as age or sex. Age, for example, is a big factor in reducing brain volume”, explains the neuroradiologist.
In addition to the change in volume, the research paid attention to another mechanism, which is diffusion. In this case, the ability to connect, which occurs in the white matter, between neurons, which is essential for brain activity, is observed.
“This has nothing to do with the volume that decreases. Here it would be about the organization of the white substance that would have these changes with the consumption of the drink”, he says.
Even though this is a different mechanism for looking at the effects of alcohol on the brain, the results were quite similar: a negative impact, but with little practical effect.
The low result does not mean that one should not be careful with alcohol consumption. Amaro says that the impacts felt are much greater for those who have an excessive consumption of the substance as it is actually considered to be neurotoxic.
“This study has a small effect because it was done with a regular population, but when you look at studies of people who have problems with alcohol, there’s a big effect in reducing brain volume,” he says.
The reduction in brain volume can affect different human capacities depending on the region that is compromised. Speech, for example, has the left frontal part as its most important area.
In this study, there was no direct observation of these regions that are affected since the research focused on the total volume of the organ.
But the fact that the mass has decreased does not mean that there will necessarily be problems since the brain has a mechanism in which other neurons can perform the function of those weakened – a phenomenon known as brain plasticity.
“When we lose volume, as in the case of alcohol, it may be that the amount of reduced volume leads to some impairment and the person has a symptom, but sometimes they don’t, because the brain ‘fixes itself'”, explains Amaro.
One thing that could be done to explore in more detail the severity of these problems resulting from the decrease in brain volume due to alcohol would be to carry out control studies. In these cases, it will be possible to monitor two different groups in order to verify the effects that alcohol would have on the group that uses the substance as opposed to the other segment that would be the control.
Another point that escapes the research is in relation to a younger segment of the population, since the data used are considered only for adults over 40 years old. In addition, the data considered are only from the British population, and it is important to expand in other surveys to other communities.
“The question remains whether the study only works with that population because it has a different genetic heritage from ours, a different socioeconomic condition and the reasons for alcohol consumption may also be different. In other words, we don’t have many other variables, so we don’t we know if this effect of alcohol with this magnitude is particular in this population”, concludes the neuroradiologist.
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