Final answer:
Alcohol cues can trigger increased brain activity in individuals with alcoholism, indicating changes in the brain's reward circuitry and the interplay of neurotransmitters. Chronic alcohol use leads to tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, with serious effects that can extend to fetal development if consumed during pregnancy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks about the phenomenon where increased brain activity is observed in alcoholics when they are exposed to alcohol cues. This is a crucial aspect of addiction studies. Researchers have found that acute administration of alcohol results in various changes in consciousness, including euphoria at low doses and sedation at higher doses. Chronic alcohol use can cause adaptations within the reward circuitry of the brain, leading to behaviors like tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal can include effects like tremors and seizures due to an imbalance of excitatory glutamatergic and inhibitory GABAergic activity.
Moreover, if alcohol is consumed during pregnancy, it can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), underscoring the far-reaching effects of alcohol on both individual health and developmental outcomes. In cases of chronic exposure, the reward system's GABAergic component is reduced, which disrupts the frontal cortical circuits that regulate motivation and self-control, thereby increasing the addictiveness of alcohol.
Battista and Kocovski (2010) explored how alcohol affects post-event processing specific to social events, indicating the breadth of research in this area, which incorporates behavioral studies. The references to various neurochemical mechanisms underscore the complexity of alcohol withdrawal and addiction and the interplay between different neurotransmitters and brain functions.