Alcohol's erroneous ways revealed

Category: Featured, Life & Society Topics: Alcohol, Intoxicants Views: 5582
5582

Just two glasses of wine can ruin the brain's ability to detect its own errors, and to correct them. The finding helps explain why alcohol so severely impairs driving ability, and casts new light on the basic action of the drug on the brain, says a Dutch team.

"We all know on a subjective level what alcohol does - we lose control a little bit, we become more error-prone. But this research gives a new perspective on how alcohol has these effects," researcher Richard Ridderinkhof of the University of Amsterdam told New Scientist.

Ridderinkhof's team studied people performing a lab task designed to generate a high proportion of errors. They found that alcohol had a significant effect on activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a region known to be involved in detecting errors and in signalling a need to adjust performance after an error. 

Just two units of alcohol reduced by a third the amplitude of the brainwave generated from this region following an error. "This means people either detect errors less often or less efficiently, or both," Ridderinkhof says. 

Lane drifting 

But the alcohol also affected people's ability to modify their performance following an error: "With alcohol, this response is so diminished it is almost completely gone," he told New Scientist 

It is not difficult to see how such alcohol-fuelled brain changes could be disastrous for drivers, Ridderinkhof adds: "Think of drifting a bit into another lane. Then, you would have to correct this error quickly and maybe slow down a bit to make sure you don't make similar further errors" The new work shows why alcohol reduces this ability. 

However, other effects of alcohol on the brain, such as impaired reaction times, are also involved in explaining the danger of drink-driving. 

Ridderinkhof team is now investigating the effects of caffeine and other drugs on the ACC. The brain transmitter dopamine is important for generating the error-related responses. So drugs that interfere with dopamine, such as amphetamines, might also interfere with these responses, he says.

Source: NewScientist.com


IslamiCity Note:

O ye who believe! Intoxicants and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan's handiwork. Leave it aside in order that ye may succeed. Quran 5:90


  Category: Featured, Life & Society
  Topics: Alcohol, Intoxicants
Views: 5582

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Older Comments:
RAFIA SULTANA FROM USA said:
Liquor stores in Oakland county'owned' by Arabs/Muslims?Wonder how brother Islam knows that?I have never been in one,so I cannot refute him.But can he tell us how he got the survey done?
Most Alcoholic drinks in the US are procured at Party Stores and Gas Stations,and over the past 20 years I have noted that many{not most}of these are run by Middle Easterners.However if br.Islam keeps an open mind,he will realize that most-though not all-are Christian Arabs,esp Lebanese/Syrian and Chaldeans{Iraqi Christians}.
Also understand that this is a risky job-working the store front,and American owners are likely to more easily find poor immigrants/illegals/refugees to man these perennial vacancies.
Hundreds of party stores in Oakland are owned by Koreans,Indians and other Asians.
It is Haram to deal in alcohol in Islam,however I do agree that some Muslims do so,just as some of them do drink it!And then beat their wives after doing so!
You can hardly run a Gas Station in the US without selling alcohol in it also;many people dont realize this. In any case some Muslims do run these places,or atleast are humble Employees there,just as many drive taxis and work in sweat shops.Not all the 3 Million can be Doctors and Engineers!
2004-08-14

ZINEDINE FROM MOROCCO said:
Salaamu alaikum,

True and that's why Abu Nawwas said: "Asquini hatta ara deeka himaran" meaning "Serve me (wine) until I see the ruster & think it's a jackass".

My wife is an Italian Canadian who reverted to Islam two years ago. Her family were trying to convaince us to allow alcohol in our wedding party to please our Italian guests. It turned out that I was the one that convainced them that people can't die if they don't drink wine but may die in a car crash if they do. As a result, the wedding took place without wine; thus without the anxiety of drink & drive. Let me tell you brothers that it was easy to say, difficult to do because asking an Italian not to drink wine once a day is like asking a Moroccan not to eat Cous Cous once a week.
2004-08-13

MOHAMED NOORUL AMEEN FROM INDIA said:
Dear all my Brother,sister here is our life car do not drink,It is clear in the our holy quran it is beuity off our religion
2004-08-12

MIKE FROM USA said:
.. The article is a good source of information for those who want to ponder. Borhter Islam started talking about Oakland Ca and it criminal behavior and blamed it on the Arabs and Muslims. My question to this "bother" is "who is responsible for the crack and the cocaine in the city?". As for Muhammad Qasim, she failed to see that the bush we have right now is the product of years of alchoholism. The right wingers are drunken, alchoholic people. The article stands right, Alchohol is destructive.

2004-08-11

BROTHER ISLAM FROM OAKLAND GHETTO(AMERICA) said:
Drunk driving deaths,rapes(human/animal)wife- beating,hazing deaths,american incest etc. can be traced back to the alcohol comsuption in this "great" christian nation.

Here in america's most despised and hated ghetto
Oakland, Ca. alcohol abuse has destroyed many good families at the hands of immigrant Arab Muslims who own and operate the overwhelming majority of LIQUOR STORES IN OAKLAND.

2004-08-10

MOHAMMAD QASEM FROM USA said:
So what?
It is better for us to have G. Bush the drunk than G. Bush the president.
It is better for all human race to have the conservative right wingers drunk, than being awake and thinking of ways to destroy humanity.
...
2004-08-10