Study in rats suggests moderate alcohol consumption improves recall

Moderate alcohol consumption may actually improve memory:

Among the normal rats, the animals that consumed moderate amounts of alcohol fared better on both tests compared with the teetotalers. Rats on a heavy alcohol diet did not do well on object recognition (and, in fact, showed signs of neurotoxicity), but they performed better than their normal brethren on the emotional memory task.

Bad news if you recently experienced something that you don't want to remember too vividly, like trauma:

"People often drink to 'drown sorrows,'" Kalev says. "Our results suggest that this could actually paradoxically promote traumatic memories and lead to further drinking, contributing to the development of alcoholism."

Technorati Tags: alcohol, brain, memory, trauma

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Memory’s Link to Recovering from Addiction

A pretty clear explanation of one of the neurobiological mechanisms of addiction:

New research on the brain is showing that addiction is a matter of memories, and recovery is a slow process in which the influence of those memories is diminished...

Studies have shown that addictive drugs stimulate a reward circuit in the brain. The circuit provides incentives for action by registering the value of important experiences. Rewarding experiences trigger the release of the brain chemical dopamine, telling the brain “do it again.” What makes permanent recovery difficult is drug-induced change that creates lasting memories linking the drug to a pleasurable reward.