The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
10/24/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/24/2025 10:01
UTHSC News: UT Health Science Center Researcher Explores Science Behind Social Influence on Alcohol Use
When Brendan Tunstall, PhD, looks at the science of addiction, he sees something missing.
"For all we've learned about the pharmacology and neurobiology of alcohol use disorder," he said, "in preclinical behavioral research, historically, we've largely ignored one factor known to powerfully influence human behavior-other people."
Dr. Tunstall, assistant professor of Pharmacology in the College of Graduate Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has built his research career around studying alcohol and substance use disorders. Now, with a $2.4 million award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), he's leading an ambitious new project to understand brain mechanisms that could help us understand how social context interacts with alcohol use.
Read more on the UT Health Science Center News website.
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The University of Tennessee Health Science Center published this content on October 24, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 24, 2025 at 16:02 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]