Dr. Rebecca Wood, a psychology professor at Central Connecticut State University is in her second year of a five-year study that looks at how alcohol affects the brains of college students.
The multi-site study, called BARCS: Brain and Alcohol Research in College Students, is funded by the National Institutes of Health and involves researchers from CCSU, Hartford’s Trinity College, Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, the University of Connecticut Alcohol Research Center, and Yale University.
At CCSU, Wood is working in conjunction with her colleagues Carolyn Fallahi, also from the school of psychology, and Carol Shaw Austad, principal investigator at CCSU.
“We’re investigating how alcohol intake among college students affects cognitive functioning, brain development, and academic performance,” said Wood. “We’re focusing on alcohol use in early adulthood—age 18 through 25—when people make the transition from adolescent to adult…a sensitive time in the process of brain maturation.”
Wood does not want to say what her hypothesis is for fear of altering the study results. “What we want to do is not talk about the hypothesis, in case it influences participants in the study,” she said.
“We ask people to come in for their initial interview, standard questions about their health history, drinking, and drug use. We also ask for a DNA sample…Everything is kept confidential. For the second session, they’ve given paper and pencil tests and computer cognitive testing. After the second session, they’re paid $30 in cash.”
Participants also make an additional $5 per month for answering regular online follow-up surveys.
The NIH grant—actually given through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an NIH subsidiary—totals $2.6 million, which covers the cost of computerized equipment and the stipends for program participants. The lead principal investigator is Godfrey Pearlson, a medical doctor at Yale.
Last semester, the study recruited 299 participants from CCSU, but Wood said she hopes to get at least 2,000 at “two demographically distinct colleges.”
The study is open to college freshmen at either CCSU or Trinity College who are between ages 18 and 25. First-year college students who are eligible and interested in participating are asked to contact Dr. Wood by e-mailing woodre@ccsu.edu.