The duration of these effects is particularly notable - the study found differences in male rats even 10+ weeks after the last ethanol exposure, suggesting potentially long-lasting effects that persist well into abstinence.

These rodents were huffing vaporized ethanol for 16 hours a day at ~.2 BAC on weekdays and then they left them on weekends for four weeks straight. That is quite the bender.

(…in mice)

This is very interesting! As a layman, I was aware that men and women had different alcohol tolerances but had no idea that there were more crucial neurological differences.

Could it because of differences in physiology? No:

“The observed sex differences in DMS sensitivity to EtOH are unlikely to result from basic physiological properties of the recorded cells, since these properties are similar across sexes. While estrous cycle can influence female neural physiology, sampling across several weeks likely averaged out these cycle-dependent changes in the present study”

Anecdata, sample size of one, so obviously take what I say with a giant grain of salt.

Due to a sleep apnea diagnosis, I don't drink any alcohol anymore at all, and outside of a single White Russian at a friend's house last Halloween, I haven't had anything to drink in more than two years.

Even before that, I didn't drink a lot, and I don't think anyone would classify me as an alcoholic, but I definitely felt like when I did drink, especially if I got drunk a part of me would kind of feel "different" in a sort of intangible way, well after I sobered up, sometimes for what felt like weeks.

It's kind of hard to explain, just sort of an odd, lingering sort of ethereal feeling that persisted.

I kind of thought it was just in my head, some sort of psychosomatic thing, but now I'm wondering if it was a physiological effect that messed with my brain.

I don't miss drinking, I fortunately never really developed that vice, and now I'm glad that I never got into it. I don't do other drugs either; I don't even consume caffeine anymore, so I'm especially lame :)

neat how you always have to dig in yourself in order to find out whether or not "sex-dependent" means chromosomal or endocrine differences. good thing those are in perfect lockstep or else we'd have to worry that we habitually gloss over such salient aspects.