Research Hit: Your Brain on Social Drinking

New research shows social drinking stimulates dopamine much higher, and can also increase risk for alcohol use disorders

So does drinking alcohol generate different responses if in social settings?

Yes, according to this research in fruit flies. Which is interesting.

Sorry, but did you say fruit flies?

Yes, I know it sounds strange. But fruit flies are actually also a social species and are commonly used in neuroscience research because they share about 75% of genes that cause human disease.

So I’m intrigued as to what the difference is - even if it is fruit flies!

Well, fruit flies congregating for a drink, like us human beings in a bar or pub, showed altered brain responses compared to drinking alone.

Now, these fruit flies weren’t drinking a pint but were sprayed with ethanol, the form of alcohol in our recreational drinks.

First off, Dilean Gonzalez et al. of the University of Texas measured behavioural responses - basically how movement patterns changes. When fruit flies “drank” alone their movement increased slightly. But when drinking in social settings the amount and speed of movement increased dramatically. Kind of making them almost hyperactive.

This explains that energetic buzz you see when groups drink together - particularly the young!

Yes, that explains that nicely. Then Gonzalez et al. looked into the brain. The working assumption was that dopamine plays a critical role so they took different groups of genetically modified fruit flies with normal or elevated dopamine levels. They indeed found that dopamine changes did indeed seem to explain the differences in behaviour.

They then investigated which precise dopamine receptors were impacted.

Dopamine receptors?

Yes, your brain cells have different types of receptors that your neurotransmitters dock in to to activate, or not, brain cells and this also impacts the responses (I told you the brain was complicated). There are five types of dopamine receptor (D1-D5). Some are also associated with addiction.

Oh, interesting, and what did they find?

They found that the dopamine D1 receptor was the one that was most important in their behavioural response. Fascinating as this is also associated with alcohol use disorders in human beings

So drinking in groups is addictive?

Well, it is certainly fun - that is why we see these responses. The interesting fact is that it is different to drinking alcohol alone so it’s not just an alcohol issue. Alcohol in social settings creates or supercharges the brain’s response.

The dopamine predicts willingness and motivation to do this again. For a quick social drink after work, or sport, this may be relatively harmless, or socially positive even. However, the question is, does this start a detrimental cycle for some that may lead to alcohol use disorders?

So, to drink in groups or not?

Well, this shows why social drinking has the positive, or euphoric effect, that many of us know. In moderation this is no bad thing. But alcohol consumption in general has negative health impacts - actually in any quantity.

I personally keep it to a minimum but sometimes a social drink with friends is good for the soul, and for friendships - at least that’s how I see it.

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Dilean J. Murillo Gonzalez, Bryan A. Hernandez Granados, Paul Rafael Sabandal, Kyung‐An Han.
Social setting interacts with hyper dopamine to boost the stimulant effect of ethanol.
Addiction Biology, 2024; 29 (6)
DOI: 10.1111/adb.13420