MONDAY, Oct. 25, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Buzzed bees may help scientists better understand drunken human behavior, say Ohio State University researchers.
"Alcohol affects bees and humans in similar ways -- it impairs functioning along with learning and memory processing," study co-author Julie Mustard, a postdoctoral researcher in entomology, said in a prepared statement.
She and her colleagues gave various levels of ethanol -- the intoxicating agent in liquor -- to bees and studied the effect this had on their behavior.
The more ethanol they consumed, the more difficulty the bees had flying, walking, standing still and grooming. Some of the bees became so drunk they ended up flat on their backs.
This preliminary study was designed to document the effects of ethanol on the bees. In future studies, the researchers plan to use bees as a model for how alcohol affects humans, particularly at the molecular level.
"On the molecular level, the brains of honey bees and humans work the same. Knowing how chronic alcohol use affects genes and proteins in the honey bee brain may help us eventually understand how alcoholism affects memory and behavior in humans, as well as the molecular basis of addiction," Mustard said.
The study was presented Oct. 23 at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San Francisco.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has information about alcohol's effects on the brain.
