Sci Adv: Why is drinking addictive? Alcohol alters the shape of the extracellular space in the brain and the spread of the medium in the brain.

Alcoholic beverages are one of the most important drinks, with nearly 2 billion consumers worldwide, but on the other hand, alcohol consumption places a huge health burden on humanity - drinking alcohol causes about 10 per cent of the disability-adjusted life span (the number of years from onset to death).
more importantly, many studies in recent years have shown that even moderate drinking does not prevent the long-term adverse effects of alcohol on brain function.
, alcohol has a strong ability to induce neurotranscienty, which promotes a strong desire to drink alcohol, referred to simply as "alcohol addiction."
the negative impact of alcohol addiction on individuals' lives and families, few studies have explained the specific mechanisms by which alcohol addiction develops.
recently, researchers from the Spanish Institute of Neuroscience published a research paper entitled: Chronic alcohol products and extracellular space geometry and a tester diffusion in the brain in the journal Science Advances, a leading international academic journal.
The study demonstrates that long-term chronic drinkers and rats increase the diffusion rate of the brain's gray matter extracellular space (ECS) over time, which in turn gradually increases the concentration of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, a combination that may be a new mechanism of alcohol addiction.
Previous studies have shown that alcohol can alter the spread of gray matter extracellular space (ECS) in the brain, a phenomenon that is important for alcohol addiction and is known to be mediated by glutamate, monoamine and peptide neurotransmitter - a hormone-like signaling mechanism that is formed in the brain by interacting with the subject.
In this study, the researchers used a multi-layered study strategy: (1) non-invasive dispersal imaging (DTI) ;(2) in patients with alcohol use disorders (AUD) and healthy control groups before, during and after drinking alcohol in alcohol preference (msP) rats Invasive real-time ion importation in the body; (3) evaluation of postcellular extracellular substitin proteins and glial markers by quantitative immunohistoma chemistry; (4) direct interference with small glial pools in rats to demonstrate their adeption of observed DTI phenomena; and (5) numerically solving the diffusion equation of dopamine in gray matter ECS exposed to health and alcohol.
Among them, dispersion imaging (DTI) is a new method of describing brain structure and a special form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which detects microstructure abnormalities in the brain caused by excessive drinking before changes occur in the macrostructure by measuring the dispersion of water in the brain's essence.
researchers found that chronic drinkers and rats generally had an increased average diffusion factor in their brain grayscale, which occurred shortly after starting drinking and continued into the early withdrawal period.
in rat models, this increase in the average diffusion rate (MD) of gray mass was accompanied by a decrease in ECS bending, which histological analysis indicated was related to the reaction of small glial cells.
note that studies have shown that small glial cells are key regulators of the brain's alcohol response.
, the researchers said: "Once alcohol-related small glial cell reactions are understood and can be disrupted, DTI may provide easily available biomarkers to detect early warning signs of alcohol addiction or to guide individualized therapy."
, the team also found that chronic drinking increased the concentration of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, over time by simulating changes in the diffusion rate of dopamine in ECS, which was associated with an increase in ESC diffusion.
, they speculate that the increase in ESC diffusion may be a new mechanism of alcohol addiction.
In summary, the study demonstrated that long-term chronic drinkers and rats affect small glial cells in the brain through dispersion imaging (DTI) and dopamine neurotransmitter diffusion equations, which in turn increase diffusion and neurotransmitter concentrations in the brain's gray matter ESC, a synergy that ultimately leads to alcohol addiction.
, the study is expected to continue to delve into how understanding and ultimately reversing these alcohol-induced changes will help develop more effective treatments and interventions for alcohol addiction.
.