THE RATE OF CHANGE OF BRAIN EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL AND FAMILIAL RISK FOR ALCOHOL

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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 Indiana Alcohol Research Center (IARC) is in its 18th year, and the Alcohol Research Lab of the GCRC continues to pursue knowledge of the association between the brain's response to alcohol and genetic influences on the risk for alcohol dependence. With a good track record of controlling the magnitude of the exposure to alcohol (breath alcohol concentration, BrAC), the current project seeks to test the hypothesis that a family history of alcoholism (FHA) is also associated with how fast the brain is exposed to alcohol (the rate of change of BrAC with respect to time, slope). With GCRC support, we have now successfully completed development of a protocol that permits the slope of brain exposure to alcohol be controlled precisely on both ascending and descending limbs. In this study, that protocol will be employed to examine 60 subjects (split by FHA, balanced by gender and spanning a substantial range of recent drinking history (RDH)). Each will undertake 2 alcohol infusion sessions, providing records of electrophysiological and subjective responses to alcohol that will be examined at 3 critical points for evidence of the postulated primary association with FHA.