Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026
09:26
Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication
Published on: February 6, 2019
Brain alcohol detectability increase with repeated administration in humans: a proton spectroscopy study
M J Kaufman1, T M Chiu, J H Mendelson
1Department of Neurology, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts 02178, USA.
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
|March 1, 1996
Summary
Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) shows increased brain alcohol detectability after a second alcoholic drink, suggesting acute alcohol tolerance develops with repeated exposure. This finding aids in understanding alcohol
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Understanding how the brain processes alcohol is crucial for addressing alcohol-related health issues.
- Acute alcohol tolerance, a reduced response to alcohol after repeated exposure, is a known phenomenon.
- Non-invasive methods to assess brain alcohol levels are needed to study its effects and tolerance development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the detectability of brain alcohol using Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) after repeated alcohol administration in human subjects.
- To explore the relationship between brain alcohol detectability and the development of acute alcohol tolerance.
Main Methods:
- Proton MRS was employed to measure brain alcohol concentrations in human participants.
- Participants consumed two identical alcoholic drinks (0.6 g/kg alcohol) with a 6-hour interval.
- Brain alcohol detectability was assessed using methyl proton resonance at echo times (TE) of 30 ms and 270 ms, comparing measurements after the first and second drinks.
Main Results:
- Brain alcohol detectability showed no significant change at TE 30 ms.
- A significant 70% increase in brain alcohol detectability was observed at TE 270 ms after the second drink (p < 0.01).
- Increased detectability correlated with subjective reports of reduced alcohol effects, indicating acute alcohol tolerance.
Conclusions:
- Repeated alcohol exposure enhances brain alcohol detectability in TE 270-ms Proton MRS spectra.
- This increased detectability may serve as a neuroimaging marker for acute alcohol tolerance.
- Findings suggest a potential mechanism for how the brain adapts to alcohol following repeated exposure.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:07Proton (¹H) NMR: Chemical Shift
Organic molecules primarily contain carbon and hydrogen atoms. While all the hydrogen isotopes are NMR-active, protium or hydrogen-1 is the most abundant. It has a significant energy separation between its nuclear spin states due to its large gyromagnetic ratio. As per Boltzmann's distribution, an increase in the energy separation implies a greater excess population of nuclei available for excitation, resulting in a strong NMR absorption signal.
Absorption signals of all the protium nuclei in a...
Absorption signals of all the protium nuclei in a...
01:10¹H NMR of Labile Protons: Temporal Resolution
Protons bonded to heteroatoms such as nitrogen and oxygen exhibit a range of chemical shift values. This is due to the varying degree of hydrogen bonding between the proton and the heteroatom in other molecules. The extent of hydrogen bonding affects the electron density around the proton, thereby giving different chemical shift values for the protons in the proton NMR spectrum.
The –OH proton in alcohols typically appears in the range of δ 2 to 5 ppm but can vary depending on the specific...
The –OH proton in alcohols typically appears in the range of δ 2 to 5 ppm but can vary depending on the specific...
01:29IR and UV–Vis Spectroscopy of Aldehydes and Ketones
Infrared spectroscopy, also known as vibrational spectroscopy, is mainly used to determine the types of bonds and functional groups in molecules. In aldehydes and ketones, the carbonyl (C=O) bond shows an absorption around 1710 cm-1. The C=O bond vibration of an aldehyde occurs at lower frequencies than that of a ketone. In addition to the C=O absorption in an aldehyde, the aldehydic C–H bond also gives two peaks in the 2700–2800 cm-1 range. This absorption, coupled with the C=O stretching, is...
01:15NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry of Aldehydes and Ketones
In aldehydes, the hydrogen atom connected to the carbonyl carbon helps distinguish aldehydes from other carbonyl compounds using ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The closeness of aldehydic hydrogen to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon highly deshields the hydrogen atom causing its signal to appear around 10 ppm in the ¹H NMR spectra. α hydrogens split the aldehydic proton signal, which helps identify the number of α hydrogens in the molecule. For instance, one α hydrogen creates a doublet for an aldehydic...
01:03Mass Spectrometry: Alcohol Fragmentation
Alcohols (R-OH) ionize to lose one non-bonded electron from the oxygen atom, forming molecular ions. Due to their tendency to fragment rapidly, the intensity of the molecular ion peak in the mass spectrum is weak or sometimes absent. The fragmentation patterns for alcohols occur in two ways, i.e. ⍺-cleavage and dehydration. During ⍺-cleavage, the bond at the ⍺-position adjacent to the hydroxyl group cleaves to give a resonance-stabilized cation and a radical. However, intramolecular dehydration...
01:19NMR Spectroscopy Of Amines
In proton NMR spectroscopy, primary amines and secondary amines showcase their N–H protons as a broad signal in the chemical shift range between δ 0.5 and 5 ppm. The exact position in this range depends on several factors, including sample concentration, hydrogen bonding, and the type of solvent used. Since amine protons undergo fast proton exchange in solution, the protons are labile and therefore do not participate in any splitting with adjacent protons. Thus, the observed peak is broad and...