The drinking habit is ubiquitous in human societies, and notable for the best and worst reasons. More and more evidence that documents the effects of alcohol on the human organism continues to be gathered by scientists. As is usual with prolific research about one specific subject, there are some surprising and seemingly counterintuitive findings that leave scientists scratching their heads in confusion. One of the unexpected discoveries about the effects of alcohol is the seeming improvement of memory recall of recently learned information (specifically before the drinking event). This ironic observation contrasts with the prevailing literature documenting the detrimental effects of the substance to neurological health.
Ambiguous drinking
Scientists at the University of Exeter recruited 88 people for the study - 31 males and 57 females, all social drinkers. The participants underwent word-learning and picture memorization tasks before being divided in two groups. One group was instructed to drink at will the following night while the other group was instructed not to drink. The following day, all participants repeated the cognitive tasks. Scientists observed that those who drank alcohol the previous night performed better in the word-learning test than those who didn't drink. This disparity in results was only observed in the
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This unexpected discovery by could be useful in the constant search for new ways to ingeniously maximize human cognitive performance. Academic environments, especially educational environments, are filled with social drinkers who often abuse of the ritual. Promoting the short-term benefits of moderate drinking to memory could be a persuasive factor in new awareness campaigns against the harmful effects of excessive drinking among students. The same could apply for other environments as
Alcohol is a psychoactive brain changing chemical that, like heroin, can depresses a person. It is an well-organized tranquilizer with the ability to reduce short term anxiety. However, at low doses alcoholic beverage acts as a stimulant and initially the user of alcohol often experiences it as an energizer with ecstatic effect. The ability of alcohol to produce both depressant and stimulant effect may be related to the fact that in difference to the other psychoactive substance alcohol affect the percentage of the brain that controls inhibition. Drinkers show more self -confidence and may act stupid or even get rowdy an will lose self control.
Researchers believe that heavy drinking from 18-25, when the brain is still developing, may cause lasting impairments in brain functions such as memory, coordination, and also motor skills. (3) This has lead researcher to believe drinking alcohol from 21-25 the ability of the child to reach their full educational capacity. (1) The years between
For many, the college years are not only to pursue education in your chosen field but also a time to gain independence and practice the decision making process. For some, that decision includes moderate to heavy alcohol consumption. Some students can easily handle the amount of time spent socializing and taking time away from their studies; however, the majority of students’ academic performance suffers greatly from alcohol consumption.
The social culture of college in America often has an underlying foundation of binge drinking. Out of the 60 percent of American college students who drink regularly, two-thirds of these students also report engaging in frequent binge-drinking (NIAAA, 2015). While students may be aware of some of the short-term consequences of engaging in these binge-drinking behaviors, which can range from being hungover, to showing poor academic performance, to assault and/or violence, public health concerns stemming from excessive use of alcohol often have far reaching, long term effects.
Furthermore, many scholars argued that heavy drinking may be associated with negative mental and physical health. Evidence demonstrates that exposure to alcohol can cause irreversible brain damage. After reading various research, I determined that age is an important factor in the development of alcohol tolerance, and I also reflected on the outcome it can have on the brain. Marisa M Silveri, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School carried out a research on separate age groups, and came out with the following results:
A prominent topic that is being discussed through research done and surveys taken from students all over the United States is the topic of binge drinking. Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking, five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women, that raises the blood alcohol content (BAC) to 0.08 percent or higher (Nguyen, 2013). People that participate in this type of drinking are far more susceptible to drug use, drunk driving, suicide, alcohol poisoning, and sexually transmitted diseases (Nguyen, 2013). Studies also show that those who start drinking in their early teen years have a greater risk of worse outcomes as adults, such as problems with health and trouble attaining new information (Norström & Pape, 2012). Among college
If a person begins heavy episodic drinking at the age of 12 the behavior increases to 50.5% by the age of 21 and 22 years old. Those of who attended college did not drink as much in adolescents but surpasses the non-college in overall alcohol use and shows a higher genetic influence. The cortical gray and white matter shows changes during normal development. There appears to be improvement in executive function in the frontal lobe, this includes improvement in the white matter connectivity between cortical and subcortical brain regions. The college-age drinker appears to overestimate the amount alcohol is in a standard drink. A biological consequence of heavy drinking includes deficits in memory retention. They used positive family history
People who drink are more than likely to have poor Academics. There is a clear relationship between alcohol use and academic performance among college students (Pediatrics 1). Students with grades of D or F drink 3 times as much as those who earn A’s …the effects on less mature individuals may be even more significant (Pediatrics 2). Poor academics can lend to students dropping out of school . Heavy drinking in high school also is associated with multiple interpersonal , academic, legal and neurocognitive consequences (Doumas 1). Poor academics can cause changes in behavior
One negative effect on Underage drinking is that it has an adverse effect on the development of memory. A discovery was found that youngsters dependent on alcohol was surely to have poor short-term memory. It has a negative effect on the person’s thinking, planning skills, memory and more. The damaging effects from alcohol focus on the frontal
The research question proposed in the article is both interesting and relevant. What was being studied was the “hangover period”, or the day after drinking heavily. This is interesting to me because most studies related to alcohol go hand in hand with the period of intoxication, not the hours after intoxication. This study is extremely applicable to today’s society because of the large role in which alcohol is played in the population today; whether it is college students, adults, and even minors, the hangover period is apparent to affect a large number of people. I believe that enough information and statistical evidence is included in the abstract, which can assure us that all
Dr. Wilson wishes to study drinking in college students. His personal theory is that college kids drink because they are rewarded by their peers for doing do. In other words, students who are rewarded, such as being praised, for drinking, are more likely to drink and drink more often than those who are treated neutrally or negatively for drinking. This may be translated into the hypothesis “If a college-age student is reacted to positively for drinking, he/she will drink more than those who are not reacted to positively.”
In this study, alcohol expectancies follow the cues that are part of the drinking context. This many become involved with alcohol expectancy memories. The idea of cue-induced activation of alcohol expectancies is more likely to be involved with positive and not negative expectancies. It is thought that encoding specificity suggests that activation of certain information in the memory is best recalled when the cues is strongly connected with the information that is being encoded. They focused their study on heavy drinkers because they have more contextual information about alcohol then other people (Wardell & Read, 2013).
If a student does not view a consequence as negative, their drinking habits are unlikely to decrease because of that consequence. One question is whether differences in perceptions can explain why men and women might differ in their subsequent drinking behaviors. Another study found that men who experienced blackouts during their freshman year of college tended to drink more during their sophomore year. In contrast, women generally drank less throughout their sophomore year (Read, Wardell, & Bachrach, 2013). That is, if women tend to perceive blackouts as negative and negative perceptions lead to reduced drinking frequencies, the difference in perceptions could explain why men tend to drink more after experiencing blackouts and women typically drink less
alcohol is in the brain that a memory pattern is not formed during a period of time that extends to
Alcoholism is a very serious disease, which can cause illness, death, injuries, schooling problems, family breakups, and crime. It is a proven fact the alcohol kills more people than any other illegal drugs combined. However, alcohol courses freely through American society, from college bars to corporate lunches. In a recent journal article by The Scientist, it is stated, "Technology shows alcohol abuse changes brain's molecular programming and circuitry? (Scientist). Thus revealing that alcohol is a quick fix that will hurt us all in the long run.