How Alcohol Impairs Memory

For a long time, people have been saying that consuming large amounts of alcohol leads to memory impairments because the stuff kills brain cells called neurons. A new investigation into the issue shows that this is not the case, and highlights the actual mechanisms that hinge memory.

For many people who drink, the night before is shrouded in mystery. They have very few recollections about what happened, and cannot account for prolonged pans of time, extending over several hours.

In past studies, experts have determined that people who consumed very large amounts of alcohol risked becoming unconscious, as the stuff simply shut down parts of their brains that were responsible for controlling breathing.

In the new research, experts did not calculate the effects of such large amounts of alcohol, but they still gave test participants a lot to drink. Their goal was to analyze the frustrating blank spots that developed in the subjects' memories.

The research effort was led by experts at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The team was coordinated by expert and study researcher Charles Zorumski. “Alcohol isn’t damaging the cells in any way that we can detect,” he says.

“As a matter of fact, even at the high levels we used here, we don’t see any changes in how the brain cells communicate. You still process information. You’re not anesthetized,” the expert explains.

“You haven’t passed out. But you’re not forming new memories,” Zorumski explains. In other words, you cannot remember what happened because those memories do not even exist.

Alcohol seemed to prevent a process called long-term potentiation (LTP), which readies the brain for the formation of long-term memories. When the stuff was consumed, neurons in memory-forming pathways released chemicals called steroids that blocked LTP.

“It takes a lot of alcohol to block LTP and memory. The alcohol triggers these receptors to behave in seemingly contradictory ways, and that’s what actually blocks the neural signals that create memories,” the team leader adds, quoted by LiveScience.

“It also may explain why individuals who get highly intoxicated don’t remember what they did the night before,” he adds. Details of the new work appear in the July 6 issue of the esteemed Journal of Neuroscience.