The Indiana Alcohol Research Center has devoted more than three decades to better understanding risks for alcohol use disorder using neuroscientific and behavioral genetic tools.
In the years 2023-2027, the center is united in studying factors that drive binge and high-intensity drinking.
Binge drinking is defined as drinking that results in a breath alcohol concentration of 0.08, the per se legal limit for driving and an exposure typically equal to four drinks for women or five drinks for men within two hours. High-intensity drinking is drinking that exceeds a binge level. Binge and high intensity drinking is prevalent, particularly in college-age young adults, and is associated with numerous harms, both to the individual drinking at this level, and to society as a whole. Binge and high-intensity drinking also places one at increased risk to later develop an alcohol use disorder.
Our central hypothesis is that inherited and acquired behavioral and neurobiological vulnerabilities predispose individuals to binge and high-intensity drinking. Each of our research components study risk factors, behaviors, and critical brain mechanisms important to binge and high-intensity drinking.
For a list of publications supported by the Indiana Alcohol Research Center, please see search results in PubMed.
Binge and High-Intensity Drinking: Rate, Acute Tolerance, and Salience
Prefrontal and Limbic Circuits in Motivated Binge and High-Intensity Drinking in Selected Rat Lines
Insula to Limbic Circuits Differentially Mediate Binge and High-Intensity Drinking Expression
Circuitry Underlying Escalation and Front-Loading of Alcohol Drinking
Gifts will support the Indiana Alcohol Research Center at IU School of Medicine.
