Cheers to that — drinking alcohol can help IMPROVE your memory, experts say
Researchers at the University of Exeter challenged a group to learn a list of words and those who boozed remembered more than those who didn't
DRINKING alcohol can improve memory after studying, researchers say.
They challenged 88 people to learn a list of words before half were told to go and drink as much as they liked.
The group was split into two and those who boozed — an average of four units — recalled more of the words than those who stayed sober the next day.
The University of Exeter team say the alcohol may block further learning so the brain retains what it has just studied.
The boffins stressed their findings should be considered alongside the well-known negative effects of excessive booze on memory and mental and physical health.
Professor Celia Morgan said: "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."
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The effect noted by the researchers has been shown under laboratory conditions before, but this is the first study to test it in a natural setting with people drinking in their homes.
There was also a second task which involved looking at images on a screen.
This task was completed once the drinkers had drunk alcohol again the following day and the results did not reveal significant differences in memory performance post-drinking.