英國研究人員最近報告說,，青少年如果經(jīng)常酗酒,，其記憶力會受到損害，特別是在記住預(yù)先計劃的某件事情方面,，酗酒青少年的記憶力與同齡人相比較低,。
英國諾森布里亞大學(xué)日前發(fā)布的研究報告指出，該校研究人員測試了50名青年學(xué)生在前瞻記憶上的差別,。前瞻記憶是指對預(yù)計要做的事情的記憶,，比如記住到時間去看牙醫(yī)或按時繳納某些費用。這些學(xué)生中有29人不常飲酒,，其余21人卻經(jīng)常酗酒,，比如每次喝6品脫（約3.4升）啤酒，每周這樣喝兩次以上,。
研究人員給這些學(xué)生看一段關(guān)于市中心購物區(qū)的錄像,，并要求他們在看到特定地方時就去完成一些預(yù)先設(shè)定的任務(wù)。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn),，那些經(jīng)常酗酒的學(xué)生能夠記住并完成的任務(wù)比不常飲酒的同齡人明顯要少,。由于所有人在受試前４８小時內(nèi)都沒有飲酒，因此這一結(jié)果說明,，經(jīng)常酗酒損害了一些學(xué)生的前瞻記憶能力,。
領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這個研究的赫弗南博士說，青少年的大腦還沒有完全發(fā)育成熟,，長期酗酒可能損害仍在成長的大腦,，影響認(rèn)知和記憶等功能。尤其需要警惕的是這項研究還顯示,，許多經(jīng)常酗酒的青少年并沒有感覺到其前瞻記憶力下降,，沒有給予足夠重視。
赫弗南認(rèn)為,，對仍在發(fā)育的年輕人來說,，很難為他們劃出一條酒量“安全線”，因此青少年應(yīng)該盡量少飲酒,。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research DOI：10.1111/j.1530-0277.2009.01025.x
Binge Drinking Affects Attentional and Visual Working Memory Processing in Young University Students
Alberto Crego, Socorro Rodriguez Holguín, María Parada, Nayara Mota, Montserrat Corral, and Fernando Cadaveira
From the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Background: Binge Drinking (BD) typically involves heavy drinking over a short time, followed by a period of abstinence, and is common among young people, especially university students. Animal studies have demonstrated that this type of alcohol consumption causes brain damage, especially in the nonmature brain. The aim of the present study was to determine how BD affects brain functioning in male and female university students, during the performance of a visual working memory task.
Methods: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded, with an extensive set of 32 scalp electrodes, in 95 first-year university students (age range 18 to 20 years), comprising 42 binge drinkers (BD) and 53 controls, in a visual "identical pairs" continuous performance task. Principal components analysis was used to identify and analyze the N2 (negative waveform with a latency around 200 to 300 ms related to attentional processes) and P3 (positive waveform with a latency around 300 to 600 ms related to working memory processes) components of the ERPs.
Results: In the matching condition of the task, the N2 component in central and parietal regions was significantly larger in the BD than in the control group. In the control group, the P3 component was larger in the matching than in the nonmatching condition in the frontal, central, and parietal regions, whereas the BD group did not show any significant differences between conditions in any region.
Conclusions: The results of this study confirm the presence of electrophysiological differences between young university student binge drinkers and controls during the execution of a visual task with a high working memory load. The larger N2 in the BD group suggests higher levels of attentional effort required by this group to perform the task adequately. The absence of any differences in the P3 component in the different conditions (matching and nonmatching stimuli) in the BD group suggests a deficiency in the electrophysiological differentiation between relevant and irrelevant information, which may reflect some impairment of working memory processes.
