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According toNational abuse on alcohol abuse and alcoholism, 26.9% of US adults reported that they are committed to drinking frenzy in 2015 and 15.1 million adults had an alcohol use disorder (AUD), which is defined as " A chronic recharged cerebral disease characterized by an altered capacity to stop or control the use of alcohol despite social consequences, professional or unfavorable health. " According toA more recent studyOne of the eight Americans is fighting with alcohol abuse, which is particularly on the rise of women, minorities and the elderly.

But, despite the fact that it is officially characterized as a "cerebral disease", we always deal with AUD as a question of self-control. "Why can not you just stop?" Friends and family members will often tell someone who struggled alcohol abuse - a sentence that, although well-intentioned, often has the counterproductive effect of plunging the victim in a larger state guilt, shame and self-abuse. Now a new study published inThe newspaper of neuroscience Also indicates that the reason some people seem unable to put the bottle even after starting to stumble or escape that their words can be due to a brain malfunction.

University of California Santa Barbara NeuroscientificKaren SzumlinskiAnd his colleagues have discovered a mechanism in a small brain structure called the Bed Core of Stria Terminalis (BNST), which helps people evaluate how alcohol affects their body and changes their desire to drink more.

"If a little intoxication makes you nervous, the BNST does its job," SzumLinkskinoted.

The researchers found that the BNST is unique in that it comprises a "brake" mechanism which helps to limit the consumption of alcohol by releasing a scaffolding protein called Homer2. However, if the BNST does not work properly, you lose the ability to realize that you have been enough to drink and continue to consume more alcohol.

The researchers tested this by manipulating the protein in the mouse and found that when they reduced the expression of Homer2 in the BNST, the mouse frenzy drank more.

"It really showed that something happens when you drink alcohol," Szumlinski said. "[Bnst] serves as a brake to reduce or brake at least your alcohol consumption. But if a kink arrives in this little signaling out there, you lose the brakes. Your brake line has been cut off, and now You have uncontrolled beverage behavior. "

Skeptics could say, "Well, so what? It's mice." But the mice of reason are often used in laboratory tests are becauseThey share the same genetic and neurological characteristics that humans, including but without limiting the complex brain processes that lead people to drink frenzy.

"How do we perceive how much we are going to influence our subsequent drink," Szumlinski said. "Although their behavior tells us, they are completely intoxicated, they may not feel hammered. Or maybe when they are drunk, they do not perceive this as a bad thing. Their awareness of their state of drunken does not lie with their preference of alcohol at high dose or their behavior of drink consumption. And so probably that could have something to do with the function of glutamate bnst. "

The study also contests the widespread belief that the quantity you drink depends on the height of your tolerance levels.

"There is a lot of literature, including a lot of human data, which says if you are more sensitive to the intoxicant effects of alcohol, you are less likely to drink," said Szumlinski. "This study says that you can be incredibly sensitive to the intoxicant effects of alcohol, but that does not necessarily allow you to repress yourself."

Additional research should be performed to confirm that this braking mechanism works in the same way in humans and, where appropriate, how to treat people whose BNTS may not work properly. But for now, winning is that we should recognize that, so that some people, the switching of water is not as simple as it seems. And for more information on how alcohol affects your body, see Why alcohol wakes you in the middle of the night .