Binge alcohol drinking elicits persistent negative affect in mice.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Science
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Chronic alcohol abuse cessation leads to dysphoria, reinforcing alcohol use.
• Little is known about how binge drinking cessation affects negative emotions and brain activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of binge alcohol drinking cessation on negative affect and associated neurobiology.
• To examine behavioral and cellular changes during early and protracted withdrawal from binge alcohol exposure.

Main Methods:

• Male mice underwent 6 weeks of alcohol access via modified Drinking-in-the-dark.
• Behavioral tests assessed anxiety and depression at 1 and 21 days post-cessation.
• Egr1 expression quantified neural activity in key emotion-related brain areas (amygdala, BNST, nucleus accumbens).

Main Results:

• Binge drinking mice showed increased emotionality across most behavioral tests compared to controls.
• This hyper-emotionality was present at both early (1 day) and later (21 days) withdrawal points.
• Elevated Egr1+ cell counts in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) correlated with behavioral changes.

Conclusions:

• Affective symptoms emerge rapidly after binge drinking cessation and persist.
• Binge drinking induces lasting neuroadaptations in brain circuits involved in emotional processing.
• These findings highlight the neurobiological underpinnings of negative affect in alcohol withdrawal.