Age and alcohol appear to act on neurons in different ways. What we've seen through this research is that you don't have to lose entire neurons to disrupt brain function. All you need is damage, and we have developed a model for that kind of change with alcohol. Damage to the brain caused by alcohol, we now think, is probably similar to the way alcohol affects the liver. There is damage and repair.
Alcohol acts on a number of molecules that interact with each other.
Just getting to the point where we can look at a particular part of a cell that is involved is a major step forward. I'm looking at a part of the life span during maturity that applies to human alcoholism, and at the combined conditions of aging and alcoholism. The object of her attention is a specific type of brain cell in the cerebellum called a Purkinje neuron. The neuron also bears a striking resemblance to a tree, and in scientific parlance its branches are called, appropriately, the dendritic arbor. Pentney and colleagues are on intimate terms with these arbors.