How experiences in the womb affect alcohol drinking in adulthood
A 20-year–long rhesus monkey study suggests that prenatal alcohol exposure changes aspects of dopamine systems in offspring that influence how quickly they drink alcohol in adulthood.
2026-02-02
(Press-News.org) New in JNeurosci, Mary Schneider and Alexander Converse, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led an interdisciplinary study to explore how prenatal alcohol and stress exposure affect rhesus monkey offspring in adulthood.
Pregnant rhesus monkeys either drank moderate amounts of alcohol, experienced mild stress, or both. The researchers later assessed changes to the brain’s dopamine system and alcohol drinking in adult offspring. Prenatal stress and alcohol influenced the dopamine system of offspring, and the prenatal alcohol exposure group drank alcohol faster in adulthood. Measures of the dopamine system in offspring before they drank predicted their drinking behavior, supporting findings from human studies of alcohol use disorder. Thus, according to the researchers, brain differences may exist before those with alcohol use disorders begin drinking.
As offspring in this study drank alcohol, they experienced additional changes to the dopamine system that affected how much they drank and varied on an individual basis. The researchers theorize that this could mean there are individualized neuroadaptive responses to drinking that promote the transition from normal drinking to alcohol use disorder.
According to the researchers, their work supports the idea that drinking while pregnant isn’t a good idea by linking this behavior to maladaptive drinking in adult offspring. Furthermore, while this work did not find a link between prenatal stress and offspring drinking behavior, the authors suggest that it is possible that prenatal stress has implications for other behaviors. The researchers also emphasize that their experimental approach closely models prenatal stress and alcohol exposure in humans, making this work more relevant clinically.
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About JNeurosci
JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.
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[Press-News.org] How experiences in the womb affect alcohol drinking in adulthood
A 20-year–long rhesus monkey study suggests that prenatal alcohol exposure changes aspects of dopamine systems in offspring that influence how quickly they drink alcohol in adulthood.
