This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The GCRC's Neural Systems Laboratory proposes a pilot study of the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) in humans. Virtually unstudied in people, the ADE is defined in animal studies a substantially increased, but transient voluntary intake of ethanol after an interval of imposed abstinence in order to achieve a fixed effect. Rat studies produce a robust ADE, with strong associations to their genetic heritage, but the methods cannot be employed ethically in humans. Alternatively, heritable indices of the brain's response to alcohol can be measured precisely in humans, and changes in those indices might be attributable to abstinence between testing sessions, if the time course of exposure to alcohol is identical in both testing sessions. The goal of the pilot study is to demonstrate feasibility of quantifying the ADE in humans and to assess the effect sizes for the battery of dependent measures that would be proposed in formal studies. The pilot study design tests the brain's response to alcohol using the same procedures that the sponsoring study (Heritability of novel Phenotypes of the Risk for Alcoholism) employed. On the other hand, it focuses on a much smaller sample population that drinks more heavily than the parent study, and employs individual subjects rather than sibling pairs. Two groups of non-dependent, healthy, young-adult, heavy drinkers will have their usual drinking habits tracked for 5 days, then undergo a BrAC clamp at 60mg% while the brain's response is measured. Then one group will commence 5 days of monitored abstinence from alcohol while the other continues their regular drinking habits; followed by a repetition of the testing of brain function. Changes in individual brain response to alcohol will be defined as the ADE; group statistics will be used to assess the effect size of the ADE.
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