Hitting the bottle to help drown out memories you'd rather forget
may in fact etch them more deeply into your consciousness, a new
study has found.
And having one or two glasses of wine a day may increase your
ability to remember, and even help with Alzheimer sufferers.
The study at Auckland University was undertaken by Dr. Maggie
Kalev and Professor Matthew During.
The two researchers found moderate levels of alcohol
consumption, equivalent to one or two glasses of wine a day, could
enhance memory.
In contrast, high levels of alcohol decreased the ability of new
brain cells to develop and mature.
This caused an impairment of memory – except at times of
heightened emotion, when memory was increased.
"Low levels of alcohol promoted neutral memories, such as
remembering objects," said Dr Kalev.
"However, contrary to popular belief, we also found that
excessive levels of alcohol enhanced memories of highly emotional
stimuli, meaning the concept of `drinking to forget' is unlikely to
be true."
"Our work suggests that heavy drinking actually reinforces
negative memories."
The study also identified the way low doses of alcohol improved
memory.
Dr Kalev said a "very important" brain receptor, called an NMDA
receptor, appeared to be necessary for the process.
Testing done on rats showed if they did not have enough NMDA
receptors, their memory did not improve when given low alcohol
doses.
However, rats which did show high numbers of NMDA receptors
exhibited memory improvement when given small amounts of
alcohol.
"Pathways by which memory is laid down are unclear, but NMDA
receptor is critical in this process," Dr Kalev said.
"Building on this knowledge may help in the treatment of memory
disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and other dementias."
The results of the study are published in this week's
Journal of Neuroscience.
(Agencies via China Daily September 27, 2007)
