Binge drinking is known to be the means of drinking too much alcohol over a short period of time. To be considered as a "binge drinker," the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of an individual must reach up to 0.08 grams per 100 grams of blood. This occurs when one happens to drink for about four to five drinks in a short amount of time-specifically for two hours.
While some of the college students think that they only want to have a good time with peers, excessive drinking may cause tragic consequences and lead to death.
Research shows that people who love to drink alcohol have changes in their brain activity. And now, researchers find the same changes in the brain activity of those who do not drink who binge drink.
Alcoholic drinks are being bought worldwide, but drinking too much and on a regular basis holds a number of health cautions.According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking means when men drink five or more, and when women drink four or more over a period of two hours. Health risks such as stroke, heart disease, liver disease, and high blood pressure are caused by binge drinking.
Besides the negative health results, binge drinking is also associated with unsafe sexual behavior, unintentional injuries, and getting involved with violence.
In the United States, one out of six adults has been reported to be binge drinking for about four times a month, absorbing about eight drinks per session. This can continue across the lifespan, but it is usually common among adulthood.
Early studies have shown that people who binge drink the most perform the worse when it comes to cognitive tasks. To be specific, researchers have not to look up whether there are significant changes in the brain of a binge drinker when at rest.
The brain of binge drinkers
At the University of Minho in Portugal, researchers led by Eduardo López-Caneda went out to inspect significant changes in the brains of people who binge drink. Research findings are published and can be found in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
According to Caneda, "A number of studies have assessed the effects of binge drinking in young adults during different tasks involving cognitive processes such as attention or working memory. However, there are hardly any studies assessing if the brains of binge drinkers show differences when they are at rest, and not focused on a task".
Since students like to spend time socializing with other people and partying - these are activities that are usually associated with excessive alcohol. In line with this, the researchers called up 80 first-year undergraduates from a university in Spain.
The students were split into two groups: the first never do binge drinking, while the second one always does binge drinking at least once in a month. Fortunately, no one in the group made the cut to be considered as an alcoholic.
The heads of the participants have electrodes attached to observe brain activity over a number of brain regions.
