Even Modest Alcohol Use Contributes to Accelerated Brain Aging and Behavioral Inflexibility, With Deficits Evident Early in Adult Life, Study Suggests
Research Society on AlcoholismAlcohol use leads to earlier brain aging and impaired behavioral flexibility, with those effects detectable even among adults in their 20s and 30s, according to an innovative study. Hazardous drinking is known to be linked to cognitive-behavioral impairments, including difficulty adapting to changing circumstances. This helps explain, for example, why people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) continue to drink despite negative consequences. Evidence is growing that heavy alcohol use accelerates brain aging. It is not known, however, whether this aging effect explains the link between alcohol use and certain cognitive deficits typical of older brains. For the study in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators explored whether hazardous drinking predicted brain aging as measured by a machine learning tool and whether brain aging explained the association between alcohol use and behavioral inflexibility.