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Role of the Cerebellum in Alcohol Addiction

In the United States, alcohol use disorders (AUDs) such as binge drinking and alcohol addiction affect 6.2% of adults aged eighteen or older. Of those individuals that do seek help for an AUD, it’s estimated that 90% will relapse within the first four years of treatment. Despite increased Neuroscience research into treatments and preventions for AUDs, these statistics are not decreasing. One region of the brain that has been highly overlooked as possibly contributing to AUDs is the cerebellum. Recent evidence has shown that the cerebellum is not only involved in motor-incoordination but other behaviors associated with AUDs such as excess alcohol consumption. Exciting preliminary evidence from my lab has been able to show that specifically targeting how our cerebellum responds to alcohol could prevent excessive alcohol consumption in a rodent model for alcohol addiction.