Sandra Villafuerte, a researcher at the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and the department of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, has found out that people with certain variations in a gene called GABRA2 have an increased risk for alcoholism. She and her colleagues studied 449 people from 173 families, including 129 families with at least one member who had been diagnosed with alcohol dependence or abuse.
The investigators used functional MRI scans to observe changes in blood flow to the brain in response to different situations. This enabled researchers to see the variations in GABRA2. The brain scans revealed that people with one form of the GABRA2 associated with alcoholism had greatly increased levels of activation in an area of the brain called the insula when they were anticipating rewards or losses.
Margit Burmeister, a professor of psychiatry and human genetics, states that the results of the study suggest that GABRA2 exerts an influence on an underlying neural system that impacts early risk factors and, later, alcohol dependency. The researchers also emphasized that genetic risk factors don't act alone and having them does not automatically mean that someone will become an alcoholic.
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