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 Good news, booze lovers: a recent study is debunking the long-held belief that alcohol diminishes memory.
The study, from the University of Exeter, split 88 social drinkers (31 males and 57 females between the ages of 18 and 53) into two groups: those allowed to drink as much as they wanted and those not allowed to drink at all. Both groups were given a word-learning exercise that they were expected to repeat the following day after (in some cases) a night of drinking had passed.
Shockingly, those who drank the night before remembered more about the word-learning exercise than the folks who didn’t have anything to drink at all.
Even more surprising, according to researchers, is that those who drank the most did even better than people who had fewer drinks and those who didn’t drink at all.
But don’t get too excited. This is not exactly news to promote an increase in drinking for healthy brain function (although let’s get someone to work on that study).
Professor Celia Morgan of the University of Exeter explains:
"The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the leading explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory."
"The theory is that the hippocampus—the brain area really important in memory—switches to 'consolidating' memories, transferring from short into longer-term memory."
So, while you can rest assured that you will retain what you learned before a night out on the town, don’t expect to process anything new or vital learned while drinking.
The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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Re: Thanks for the Memories, Alcohol!
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