It turns out your mother may be right—one sip is all it takes. A new study from the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that the first taste of alcohol has a lasting impact on how your brain learns about and understands drinking, with results that could have monumental impacts for how addiction recovery centers treat and care for alcohol addiction. The study focuses on the dopamine reward system in the brain, a system that developed to help humans increase their chances of survival. Our brains contain a naturally-occurring neurotransmitter called dopamine, which causes pleasant effects when released into the brain. Whenever we perform activities necessary for life—like eating, socializing, or having sex—small bursts of pleasurable dopamine are released into the brain. Over time, our brains learn to associate activities like eating, socializing, and sex with pleasure, ensuring that we keep engaging in them and increase our chances of survival. Drugs like alcohol, however, hack this reward system. Whenever a person takes a drug or drinks alcohol, the brain releases floods of dopamine, much more than usual, causing a euphoric high. This high, many times more powerful than the smaller bursts of dopamine which come from more mundane activities, teaches people to continue doing drugs or drinking. The treatment programs at addiction treatment facilities often work on reversing this teaching, by helping people wean themselves off of drugs and resist powerful cravings. Researchers have pinpointed a neuron, called D1, which is closely…