Alcohol can actually improve memory, study suggests

26 Jul 2017 --- Drinking alcohol may actually improve the recall of information that was learned before the drinking episode began, a new study has suggested.

The study, conducted at the University of Exeter and published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, split 88 people into two groups at random after giving them a word-learning task. It then randomly allocated the 88 social drinkers either an alcohol self-dosing or a sober condition. Those who drank consumed an average of four units of alcohol.

Participants attended two sessions on two consecutive days that were approximately 16 hours apart. Session one took place at 6 pm and lasted approximately four hours. Session two took place at 10 am the following morning and lasted approximately 45 minutes.

“Our research not only showed that those who drank alcohol did better when repeating the word-learning task, but that this effect was stronger among those who drank more,” says Professor Celia Morgan of the University of Exeter.

“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.”

Alcohol’s positive effect on this type of memory had been expected. The study notes that alcohol was already known “to facilitate memory if given after learning information in the laboratory,” and that this investigation aimed to determine whether this effect could also be found when alcohol was consumed in a naturalistic setting by people drinking in their homes.

Participants also performed a second task which involved looking at images on a screen. During phase one, participants observed 128 images of objects on the screen and were required to press a key classifying them as “indoor” or “outdoor.” Phase two followed, and tested memory recognition as participants were required to identify 192 objects on the screen as either “old,” “similar” or “new.”

This task was completed once after the drinkers had drunk alcohol and again the following day, and the results did not reveal significant differences in memory performance post-drinking.

Participants in the study were 31 males and 57 females, aged 18 to 53. The sober and alcohol conditions did not significantly differ in age, BMI, alcohol use or incidence of blackouts.

The University of Exeter paper is entitled: Improved memory for information learned before alcohol use in social drinkers tested in a naturalistic setting.

The rare positive story of alcohol’s effects comes at a time when alcohol is being discussed for less positive health reasons. Estonia’s EU presidency has come with a discussion about improving health warning labels on alcohol products to better educate the public as to its dangers. Meanwhile, research has discovered why prenatal alcohol exposure increases the likelihood of future addiction for the child.