Beer Goggles Confirmed

Anyone who doubts that alcohol is just another psychoactive substance similar to cannabis or cocaine will be upset to find that Scottish scientists have confirmed the reality of the perceptual hallucination known as Beer Goggles. Apparently, drinking only a moderate amount of alchohol renders others around 25% more attractive on a normalized scale. Apparently, alcohol is synthezised in the body into the GABA neurotransmitter, which acts on the nucleus accumbens as a depressant. The nucleus accumbens, part of the basal ganglia, is also targeted by cocaine, amphetamine, and most central nervous system stimulants or depressants. There’s some overlap with these dopamine-based drugs, but alcohol (and similar drugs such as GHB and Heroin) seem to have their very own distinct psychoactive reward system:

The alcohol reward system also includes the VTA [ventral tegmental area] and nucleus accumbens and affects the structures that use GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) as a neurotransmitter. GABA is widely distributed in numerous areas of the brain, including the cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, superior and inferior colliculi, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens. The VTA and the nucleus accumbens are two structures involved in the reward system for all drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.