EOAOM Case Study.docx - The Effects of Alcohol on Memory A...

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
The Effects of Alcohol
on Memory
A CASE STUDY
VICK, AUTUMN R

Summary of Literature
Prospective and Everyday Memory
Alcohol addiction adversely impacts the organs of the body. Subsequently, alcohol affects
the brain and memory as well. In fact, research has suggested that alcohol has a larger effect on
memory than once thought and p henomenological evidence suggests that alcoholic intoxication
decreases memory performance. The original reason for this research was to determine what
outcomes alcohol has on memory performance in everyday life. This encompassed prospective
memory defined as being able to remember something in the future. During continuous
recognition memory sessions, people moderately intoxicated showed a significant decrease in
memory performance. In the interest of confounds, other drug use should be controlled in order
to get unaffected data. When controlling for other drug use, evidence can be found linking
alcohol to prospective memory impairments and cognitive failings.
Chronic Alcohol Use
Heavy abuse of alcohol has a deleterious effect on retrospective memory. Alcohol can
cause shrinkage to the brain especially in alcohol-dependent people and cause global
impairments in both retrospective and prospective memory. Heavy users of alcohol report
importantly higher levels of prospective forgetfulness for long-term, short-term, and internally
cued prospective memory. The use of alcohol has been found to cause a reduction in the number
of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain which leads to reduced function in the
hippocampus, which is largely involved in memory consolidation. Alcohol also inhibits
prefrontal lobe and frontal cortical control functioning which interacts with prospective memory.
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Alcohol Abstinence
In a variety of studies, alcohol abstinence was linked to better memory performance
overall. In these studies, alcohol was introduced and tasks were assessed during three stages:
while intoxicated, the day after (during the hangover period), and under no intoxication. Results
showed that memory performance was marred throughout the whole of the morning during the
hangover period. Despite the participants BAC levels being at zero or very close to zero, they
still performed worse on cognitive tasks. These findings suggest that even if some form of
information or stimuli is stored in the brain, drinking alcohol the night before restricts this
information from becoming readily available. Another study tested sober alcohol-dependent
participants in relation to memory. The results of this study concluded that alcohol-dependent
participants needed an increased amount of training or studying in order to do better on memory
tasks.