Heavy drinking among young people can create a blockage in the brain.
It affects both memory and learning ability, a new study shows.
– It can affect young people’s performance at school or at work, says researcher Sara A. Lorkiewicz.
The risk of waking up with a blackout after a party night increases when you drink a lot in a short time, so that the alcohol content in your blood rises quickly. If the blood alcohol level goes up to 1.6 or higher, it is even more likely that you will suffer a “black out”.
And these very memory gaps can actually change our brain structure permanently. At least if you’re young. That’s what scientists warn after a new American study conducted by brain researchers from the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, writes Illustrated Science.
Affected the hippocampus
IN the studywhich ran for six years, examined young people’s alcohol intake and the impact it had on brain development.
Thousands of young people aged 12 to 24 participated and the researchers identified those who drank the most alcohol and reported the most memory lapses.
After doing brain imaging on this group, the researchers could see that the alcohol interfered with many of the brain’s functions both in connection with the party night and in the long term. Above all, the brain’s hippocampus, which helps transfer our short-term memories to long-term memories, was affected.
“Our results show that drinking can more or less block the transfer of impressions and memories to long-term memory from short-term memory,” says Sara A. Lorkiewicz, postdoctoral researcher in neuropsychology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.
Harder to learn new things
But that wasn’t all. Drinking a lot of alcohol can also make it harder for us to learn new things that we see with our eyes.
It is the brain’s temporal lobe that is affected and it is with the help of it that we can recognize faces and words.
– Unhealthy drinking habits can have chronic effects on young people’s ability to acquire new knowledge and remember, for example, faces. It can affect young people’s performance in school or at work, as well as an inability to form social relationships, explains Sara A. Lorkiewicz, who is the lead author of the study.