Why people become aggressive after having a couple of drinks may be one of the biggest questions of life in modern society. It is known that alcohol acts as a deinhibitor and that, after feeling a little “high,” we are more likely to express feelings and behaviors that we would not normally express. However, aggressiveness enters into a higher plane, it is a specific behavior that many people exhibit after having had a few drinks and that is behind many wrong decisions and major accidents.
Now, thanks to a brain scan (MRI), we can learn how drinking alcohol impacts blood flow to the brain to better understand why people often become aggressive and violent after drinking. .
Alcohol and aggressive behavior: a close relationship?
According to most theories, alcohol-related aggression is caused by changes in the prefrontal cortex. However, there is a lack of substantial neuroimaging evidence to corroborate these ideas. In this study, a team of researchers led by psychologist , from the University of New South Wales in Australia, recruited a group of fifty healthy young people, who drank either two drinks containing vodka, or placebo drinks without any type of alcohol.
While their brains were examined by an MRI scanner, the participants had to compete in a task that has been used regularly for the past 50 years to observe levels of aggression in response to provocation. The MRI allowed the researchers to see which areas of the brain were activated when the task was performed. Participants who had consumed alcohol and those who had not were also able to compare the difference.
Surprisingly, it was found that the provocation did not influence the participants’ neural responses. However, when behaving aggressively, there was a drop in activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brains of those who had consumed alcoholic beverages. This dampening effect was also observed in brain areas that are involved in reward. In addition, elevated activity was observed in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with people’s memory.
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“We observed a positive relationship between dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity and alcohol-related aggression” (thomas denson)
After just two drinks, researchers noticed changes in the functioning of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, the part normally involved in tempering a person’s aggression levels. These results are very consistent with a growing body of research around the neural basis of aggression, and how it is triggered by changes in the way the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, and related brain regions function. with the reward.
Researchers consider it important to highlight that alcohol is the most common psychotropic contributor to aggressive behavior. In many parts of the world, acute alcohol consumption is implicated in approximately 35% to 60% of violent crimes.
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