By Judy Berthiaume, Senior Editor, UW-Eau Claire Integrated Marketing and Communications
Although many senior citizens assume that having two or three drinks is harmless, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire student-faculty research team has found that as people age, they feel the effects of alcohol differently than when they were younger.
Psychology Prof. Doug Matthews, who has studied the effects of alcohol on the aging brain for several years, said that alcohol significantly affects older brains in ways that may threaten health and well-being, including increasing the risk of falling.
“Something changes in the brain as we age,” Matthews said. “The older brain is fundamentally different, and the difference makes it more sensitive to alcohol. What is different, we do not know. That’s a wide-open question that we are actively pursuing.”
Matthews and his undergraduate student research team were studying the effects of alcohol on adolescent brains when, out of curiosity, they included a group of aged animal brains in their work.
What they found was so significant that it changed the course of their research, Matthews said.
“. . . we were stunned”
“The effects of alcohol on the aged brains were so large that we were stunned,” he said. “From there, we began looking at the literature and found that we know very little about how alcohol interacts with the aging brain.”
Nonetheless, “we know it affects things like balance and mobility,” Matthews said. “The work we are doing to understand how and why the brain changes as we age is really getting at a major health concern.”
The team’s immediate research goal is to identify the specific neurobiological mechanisms within the brain that change as people age, which increases their sensitivity to alcohol, Matthews said.
His research laboratory is one of a few he is aware of that are studying the effects of alcohol in aged rats, which will help them better understand why humans become more sensitive to the effects of alcohol as they age, he said.
Partnering with Mayo Clinic for ‘cutting-edge science’
Thanks to a UW-EC- research partnership agreement with Mayo Clinic Health System, Matthews and his undergraduate student research team are working closely with Dr. Doo-Sup Choi, a neuroscientist and professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, whose work focuses on neurobehavioral and addictive disorders.
Using cutting-edge technology, Choi investigates the impact of alcohol use on neurobiology and cognition.
“It’s been amazing,” Matthews said of this collaboration, which involves research on both the adolescent and aging brain. “The work we are doing is hopefully groundbreaking.
“We’re doing cutting-edge science and working with some of the best minds at Mayo Clinic. It’s the most exciting science I’ve been part of in my 25-year research career,” he said.
The collaboration with Choi means that his research team can tap into Mayo Clinic’s expertise and its state-of-the-art technology, Matthews said. It also allows the team to work with Choi, who is a world leader in his field, Matthews said, noting that he and his students participate in weekly virtual lab meetings with Choi.
Partnership is ‘meaningful’
Choi said that his partnership with Matthews’ research team is meaningful, and added that he hopes to see even more Mayo Clinic scientists and physicians build connections with UW-EC faculty, staff and students.
“I believe undergraduate students who experience Mayo’s (advanced) scientific or medical approaches will have better ideas to shape their future careers in medical science and medicine. This collaboration is not only for practical scientific achievement but also for training future scientists and health care professionals,” he said.
By collaborating, the two labs are capitalizing on each of their strengths, allowing them to advance their research more quickly and in new ways, he noted.
Advancing research into how alcohol affects the brain at different ages is critical because it is relevant to so many health-related issues, including those facing the elderly, Matthews said.
Rapidly growing senior population
Understanding the effects of alcohol on the aging brain is especially important given the country’s rapidly growing senior population, Matthews said. By 2060, it’s estimated there will be 98 million people in the U.S. over the age of 65.
“It’s important that we understand the many health factors associated with this growing population, including the effects of alcohol, since we know older people are drinking and sometimes binge drinking,” Matthews said.
Studies show that in the U.S., at least 59.9% of men and 47.5% of women over the age of 60 currently consume alcohol, and older adults have the highest percentage of binge drinking of any age demographics, he said.
Those numbers are probably higher because older people may not report their alcohol use to their health care providers, and they aren’t missing work or other engagements because of their drinking, Matthews said.
The effects of alcohol in older people have far-reaching implications not only for seniors but also for the health care system, Matthews said, since “older people use health care more than other populations.”
Alcohol consumption can contribute to such health problems as heart disease and hypertension and it also can contribute to memory problems, cognitive decline and other issues that can impact seniors’ health, safety and quality of life, Matthews noted.
Wisconsin has highest rate of fatal falls by older adults
For example, new federal data show that Wisconsin has the nation’s highest rate of deadly falls among older adults. More state residents 65 and older die from falls than from breast and prostate cancer combined, the data show.
“People often assume it’s because of our weather and the snow and ice,” Matthews said of the high number of deaths due to falls. “But other states with similar weather conditions have far fewer deaths.
“Alcohol consumption is high in Wisconsin and likely contributes to some of those falls. We know that when older individuals consume alcohol, their motor skills become much more impaired than when they were younger,” he added.
Matthews said his team’s research has shown that motor coordination, balance and movement in aged rats is significantly more impacted by alcohol when compared to adult or adolescent rats.
“The effect of alcohol on a person’s 70-year-old brain is different than on their 30-year-old brain,” he said. “The two drinks a person has when they are 70 have a very different effect than two drinks did when they were 30 in terms of their balance and motor ability.”
Undergraduate students gain valuable skills
Matthews said one of the exciting parts of his research lab is that he is working with undergraduate students, some of whom are in their first year of college.
Most of his published articles have undergraduate co-authors, and most members of his research team have their names on one to three publications before they graduate, he noted.
“It’s really worked well for them,” Matthews said. “By the time they go off to graduate programs or to a job, they have a lot of experiences that students often don’t get until they are in grad school.”
Samantha Scaletty, a senior neuroscience major from Appleton, has co-authored two publications while working as a student researcher in Matthews’ lab during her four years as a Blugold.
Having those publications on her resume already is proving to be valuable, according to Scaletty, who will graduate in May.
“I am interviewing for graduate school and having these publications puts me at a level above most other applicants, including those who come from much larger universities,” she said.
Scaletty said she plans to earn a Ph.D., something she likely would not have considered had she not been part of Matthews’ research team.
Mayo researcher impressed by UW-EC researchers
Choi, who interacts with UW-Eau Claire undergraduate researchers through national conferences as well as in-person and virtual meetings, said he is impressed by the Blugolds. He described them as “well-educated and well trained,” and added:
“I hope that more students are interested in pursuing their future academic and professional careers at Mayo Clinic,” Choi said..
This year, UW-EC and Mayo Clinic Health System launched the Blugold Biomedical Innovator Program, an initiative that aims to prepare the next generation of scientists and health care providers.
Students in the program have opportunities to collaborate with faculty on research and to network with Mayo Clinic scientists and medical providers from their first days on campus.
“These are high-achieving students who come directly into research labs,” said Matthews, who has three Innovator Scholars working with him in his lab this year. “It’s great because they have been working on this research with me from their first day here.
“These are experiences they wouldn’t be getting at a Big 10 or Ivy league school. They are first-year students working on research on campus, but they also are working with researchers at Mayo Clinic. It’s been tremendous for them and for us.”
A couple of first-year student perspectives
Quinn Petersilka, an Innovator Scholar from Eau Claire who is a research assistant in Matthews’ lab, agreed, saying she values the opportunity the program has given her to gain knowledge and make connections on campus.
Having a mentor to turn to for advice and support has been helpful as she’s settled into college, said Petersilka, a communication sciences and disorders major who also is pursuing a certificate in American Sign Language.
“Getting this connection early on is super helpful,” she said. Petersilka is one of 10 students who make up the first Innovator Scholar cohort.
“It also allowed me to get into a research lab right away. I worked in the lab for the entirety of first semester and over break, helping maintain the lab,” she said.
“I have learned how to run and analyze behavioral tests, harvest brain tissue and I’m currently helping run an experiment, which is something I never thought I’d be able to do my freshman year of college. It’s really exciting to know that I contributed to discovering something that we didn’t completely understand before and that it could branch off into different scientific studies in the future,” she added.
“Being a part of a research project is a little stressful because the data that’s being collected is super important and there isn’t a large margin for error, but it’s very rewarding,” Petersilka said
Bailey Imhoff, a freshman neuroscience major from Edgar who also works as a research assistant in Matthews’ lab, said UW-EC’s affiliation with Mayo and its focus on undergraduate research are among the reasons she chose to attend the university.
Coming into college, her goal was to get involved with research as soon as possible, Imhoff said. It’s incredible that as a freshman she already is part of a research team that collaborates with Mayo Clinic scientists, she said. Among other duties, she is assisting Matthews in the lab’s ongoing research investigating a mutation on ethanol-induced spatial memory impairments.
NOTE: the home page photo, provided by UW-Eau Claire, shows Prof. Doug Matthews and Quinn Petersilka, a freshman research assistant who is part of the team collaborating with Mayo Clinic on research about the effects of alcohol on aging brains.