Brain damage caused by excessive drinking can impair the ability to read facial expressions and blunt emotions even among those in long-term recovery from alcoholism, Science Daily reported Aug. 12.

Alcohol-related deficits in the amygdala and hippocampus regions of the brain can hinder the ability of current and former alcoholics from maintaining healthy relationships, researchers said. Study author Ksenija Marinkovic of the University of California at San Diego and colleagues based their conclusions on studies using functional MRI scans.

"Alcoholics also have problems in judging the emotional expressions on people's faces," said Marinkovic. "This can result in miscommunication during emotionally charged situations and lead to unnecessary conflicts and difficulties in interpersonal relationships. The resulting negative repercussions can, in turn, contribute to increased drinking."

"The neuroimaging evidence from our study suggests that deficient activation of limbic structures inside the temporal lobes -- the amygdala and hippocampus -- may underlie emotional difficulties in abstinent long-term alcoholics," explained Marinkovic. "Whereas nonalcoholic adult men showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional expressions, the alcoholics showed decreased activation in these brain areas, and furthermore responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions. The alcoholics also were impaired on the intelligence-appraisal task, possibly due to their dampened amygdala activity."

The study was published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.