Researchers have found that people who drink are more likely to remember the good things and least likely to recall the bad things, say, the worst experiences of being drunk in a party as alcohol affects memory in a selective manner.
"The discovery that alcohol helps us remember the good and brush aside the bad could explain our fascination with alcohol. This bias towards positive memories means that people are more likely to drink heavily the next time they go out because they only remember the good memories about the last time," said lead researcher Theodora Duka.
Duka of Sussex University and colleagues at Liverpool University came to the conclusion after looking at a group of volunteers who were recruited for the study, the British media reported.
The researchers looked at how well people recalled flash cards shown just before and just after drinking several
units of alcohol. Their answers were compared with those from a similar group given alcohol-free drinks.
In fact, both the drinkers and non-drinkers remembered the first set of cards better than the second. However, the drinkers remembered the first set of cards better than the non-drinkers and recalled emotive images particularly vividly. But they scored worse than the non-drinkers when asked to remember the second set of cards, with emotional scenes proving especially easy to forget.
Memory tests on the subjects, who were shown emotion laden images before, during and after a bout of drinking did confirm there was a clear degradation in memory as the alcohol began to build up in their bodies, the researchers said. "Alcohol facilitated memory for material seen after its administration. More importantly, under the influence of alcohol, emotional images seen before alcohol consumption were recalled more whereas emotional images seen after alcohol consumption were recalled less," Duka said.
