After tasting the alcohol, they were shown pictures of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Only the alcoholics showed increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus when looking at pictures of alcohol. These brain areas are involved with emotion, attention and appetite. The control subjects had increased activity in different brain regions. Federal scientists are also finding distinct gender-related differences among alcoholics.
Alcohol works on some of the same biochemical pathways involved in the stress response.
In particular, a hormone called ACTH is released during the stress response. Many scientists and drug companies have been trying to find compounds similar to ACTH that could be used to design new treatments. Laboratory animals behave quite like humans when it comes to alcohol consumption and stress. But if these same animals are exposed to random bouts of stress, after a week they will all drink more. Federal researchers studying the effects of early maternal separation have shown that monkeys brought up away from their mothers had twice the level of stress hormones in their blood than monkeys that were not separated from their mothers.