Study reveals drinking alcohol can improve memory
A study has revealed that those that drink alcohol after studying recall what they learnt better than those that don’t.
The University of Exeter set 88 drinkers a word-learning task and then split them into two random groups. The first were told to drink as much as they liked and the second not to drink at all.
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A day later, the participants were asked to complete the same task and the result was clear. Those that had drunk alcohol remembered more of what they learnt.
Of the study, Professor Celia Morgan told The Sun:
“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.”
“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.”
Boozing, thus, one could argue, is good for the brain. Cheers to that!
Readers have their say
1 comment
Who’s to say that the 2 sets of 44 were of equal ability before the test. I’d want more than 88 test cases before reading anything into the results. Or maybe repeat the tests with the two groups swapped to see that it’s the alcohol, not their native intelligence, affecting the results.
Or am I talking rubbish? Wouldn’t be the first time….