The taste of beer, without its alcoholic effects, may be enough to trigger the release of the pleasure chemical dopamine in the brain, a study finds. 
 
 To see how the taste of beer affects the brain, researchers gave a group of men tiny tastes of beer, and as the men sipped the beer, the researchers scanned the men’s brains. After a taste of beer, the men's brains showed a notable release of dopamine, a brain chemical associated with the pleasurable experience of consuming alcohol and other drugs. The effect was even greater among men who had a family history of alcoholism. 
 
 The findings are not surprising, scientists say, but having a way to assess predisposition to alcohol abuse could be useful. 
 
 "We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain's reward centers," the study's senior author, neuroscientist David Kareken of the Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a statement. The findings were detailed online today (April 15) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. 
 
 Dopamine, a brain chemical widely associated with pleasure, has long been linked to the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Sensory cues — such as tastes, smells or the sight of a bar — can elicit cravings to drink and cause relapses in recovering alcoholics. Dopamine may be critically involved in such cravings, scientists believe. [11 Interesting Facts About Hangovers] 
 
 In the study, researchers gave 49 male volunteers a tiny taste (half an ounce, or 15 milliliters) of their favorite beer over the course of 15 minutes — enough to taste the beer but not enough to cause a change in blood-alcohol level or intoxication. At other times, the volunteers were given a sports drink or water, for comparison. 
 
 To study the effect of beer's taste on dopamine receptors, the researchers scanned the volunteers' brains using Positron Emission Tomography, which uses the radiation emitted by a radioactive chemical to produce a 3D image of the brain. 
 
 The scans revealed higher increases in dopamine after the men tasted beer compared with tasting the sports drink or water — suggesting that the taste of alcohol is enough to prompt a pleasurable response in the brain. The men also reported higher beer cravings after tasting beer than water or the sports drink. 
 
 Furthermore, the men who had a family history of alcoholism showed an even greater spike in dopamine levels after they tasted the beer, so the dopamine response may be a heritable risk factor for alcoholism. 
 
 "This paper demonstrates that taste alone impacts on the brain functions associated with desire," Peter Anderson, a professor of substance use, policy and practice at Newcastle University, U.K., said in a statement. But Anderson noted that “With regard to the family history effect, this is quite difficult to assess and know what it means so we can’t be too sure of an effect or how strong it might be." 
 
 The effects of the alcohol itself on the brain, and not just the taste, could not be ruled out, Anderson added. 
 
 Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| Remember that Jamie Foxx song "Blame It (On the Alcohol)"? If not, perhaps it’s just as well, because scientists say that even the taste of beer (without the intoxicating effects of alcohol) can trigger that flow of striatal dopamine in the brain. 
 
 The findings, published online Monday in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, "demonstrate for the first time the important role of an alcoholic drink's flavor, absent alcohol’s pharmacological effects," the study authors wrote. 
 
 Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis asked 49 men to try two beverages: Gatorade and their preferred beer. They sipped a mere 15 milliliters over 15 minutes, which allowed them to experience the taste of both without getting even close to buzzed by the beer’s alcohol content. 
 
 The scientists scanned the men’s brains during this demure drinking game using positron emission tomography, looking for signs of dopamine release. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with alcohol and other drugs. They found that the dopamine levels rose much higher when the participants tasted their beers, compared with when they just drank the Gatorade. The effect was more pronounced in participants who had a family history of alcoholism. 
 
 The findings suggest that the jacking-up of dopamine levels in response to alcohol-related triggers could be a hereditary risk factor for alcoholism. 
 
 This effect persisted even though many of the participants actually said that the Gatorade tasted better than the beer. 
 
 Follow me on Twitter @aminawrite. ||||| Scientists have pinpointed a population of neurons in the brain that influences whether one drink leads to two, which could ultimately lead to a cure for alcoholism and other addictions. 
 
 A study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, finds that alcohol consumption alters the structure and function of neurons in the dorsomedial striatum, a part of the brain known to be important in goal-driven behaviors. The findings could be an important step toward creation of a drug to combat alcoholism. 
 
 "Alcoholism is a very common disease," said Jun Wang, M.D., Ph.D., the lead author on the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, "but the mechanism is not understood very well." 
 
 Now, Wang and his team have helped come a little closer to that understanding. Using an animal model, the researchers determined that alcohol actually changes the physical structure of medium spiny neurons, the main type of cell in the striatum. These neurons can be thought of like a tree, with many branches, and many small protrusions, or spines, coming off of them. They each have one of two types of dopamine receptors, D1 or D2, and so can be thought of as either D1 or D2 neurons. D1 neurons are informally called part of a "go" pathway in the brain, while D2 neurons are in the "no-go" pathway. In other words, when D2 neurons are activated, they discourage action -- telling you to wait, to stop, to do nothing. 
 
 Although it is well known that the neurotransmitter dopamine is involved in addiction, this study goes further, showing that the dopamine D1 receptor also plays an important role in addiction. The team found that periodic consumption of large amounts of alcohol acts on D1 neurons, making them much more excitable, which means that they activate with less stimulation. 
 
 "If these neurons are excited, you will want to drink alcohol," Wang said. "You'll have a craving." That is to say, when neurons with D1 receptors are activated, they compel you to perform an action -- reaching for another bottle of tequila, in this case. This then creates a cycle, where drinking causes easier activation, and activation causes more drinking. 
 
 These changes in activation of D1 neurons might be related to the physical changes happening at the sub-cellular level in brains that have been exposed to alcohol. They have longer branching and more of the mature, mushroom-shaped spines -- the type that stores long-term memories -- than their abstaining counterparts. 
 
 Conversely, the placebo group, the ones not exposed to alcohol, tended to have more of the immature versions of the mushroom-shaped spines in D1 neurons of their brains. The total number of spines didn't change in the two groups, but the ratio between mature and immature was dramatically different between the alcohol group and the placebo group. This has important implications for memory and learning in drug addiction. 
 
 "When you drink alcohol, long-term memory is enhanced, in a way," Wang said. "But this memory process is not useful -- in fact, it underlies addiction since it affects the 'go' neurons." Because there was no difference in the number of each type of spine in the D2 (no-go) neurons of alcohol-consuming and control models, the researchers realized there was a specific relationship between D1 neurons and alcohol consumption. 
 
 "We're now able to study the brain at the neuron-specific and even spine-specific level," Wang said. 
 
 How do you determine which neuron, which type of neurons or which group of neurons is responsible for a specific disease? That's what the next part of the study tried to answer. 
 
 The alcohol-consuming animal models with the increased mature spines in D1 neurons also showed an increased preference to drink large quantities of alcohol when given the choice. 
 
 "Even though they're small, D1 receptors are essential for alcohol consumption," Wang said. 
 
 Furthermore, and perhaps most excitingly, when those same animal models were given a drug to at least partially block the D1 receptor, they showed much-reduced desire to drink alcohol. However, a drug that inhibited the D2 dopamine receptors had no effect. "If we suppress this activity, we're able to suppress alcohol consumption," Wang said. "This is the major finding. Perhaps in the future, researchers can use these findings to develop a specific treatment targeting these neurons." 
 
 The study, which was co-authored with researchers from the University of California San Francisco, was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). 
 
 "My ultimate goal is to understand how the addicted brain works," Wang said, "and once we do, one day, we'll be able to suppress the craving for another round of drinks and ultimately, stop the cycle of alcoholism."
– Beer drinkers start feeling happy at the smallest sip, even before any alcohol registers, a new study suggests. Indiana University researchers found that dopamine levels in the brain rose when drinkers had just a tiny amount of beer, before any alcohol buzz was possible, reports LiveScience. The not-so-funny part: Dopamine levels shot up the most in those who had a family history of alcoholism, suggesting that some kind of hereditary risk factor was at play, reports the Los Angeles Times. "We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain's reward centers," says the lead author. If the connection to those with a family history of alcoholism holds true, the dopamine test might help gauge the vulnerability of those predisposed to alcohol abuse.