Alcohol Helps the Brain Remember

Repeated ethanol exposure enhances synaptic plasticity in key area in the brain

Drinking alcohol primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better, says a new alcohol and addiction study at The University of Texas.

The common view that drinking is bad for learning and memory isn’t wrong, says neurobiologist Hitoshi Morikawa, but it highlights only one side of what ethanol consumption does to the brain.

“Usually, when we talk about learning and memory, we’re talking about conscious memory,” says Morikawa, whose results were published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience. “Alcohol diminishes our ability to hold on to pieces of information like your colleague’s name, or the definition of a word, or where you parked your car this morning. But our subconscious is learning and remembering too, and alcohol may actually increase our capacity to learn, or ‘conditionability,’ at that level.”

Morikawa’s study, which found that repeated ethanol exposure enhances synaptic plasticity in a key area in the brain, is further evidence toward an emerging consensus in the neuroscience community that drug and alcohol addiction is fundamentally a learning and memory disorder.

When we drink alcohol (or shoot up heroin, or snort cocaine, or take methamphetamines), our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it doesn’t stop there. We become more receptive to forming subconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, even people and social situations.

Does knowledge about alcohol benefits lead to increased consumption?: An article from: Wines & Vines

In an important sense, says Morikawa, alcoholics aren’t addicted to the experience of pleasure or relief they get from drinking alcohol. They’re addicted to the constellation of environmental, behavioral and physiological cues that are reinforced when alcohol triggers the release of dopamine in the brain.

“People commonly think of dopamine as a happy transmitter, or a pleasure transmitter, but more accurately it’s a learning transmitter,” says Morikawa. “It strengthens those synapses that are active when dopamine is released.”

Alcohol, in this model, is the enabler. It hijacks the dopaminergic system, and it tells our brain that what we’re doing at that moment is rewarding (and thus worth repeating).

Among the things we learn is that drinking alcohol is rewarding. We also learn that going to the bar, chatting with friends, eating certain foods and listening to certain kinds of music are rewarding. The more often we do these things while drinking, and the more dopamine that gets released, the more “potentiated” the various synapses become and the more we crave the set of experiences and associations that orbit around the alcohol use.

Morikawa’s long-term hope is that by understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of addiction better, he can develop anti-addiction drugs that would weaken, rather than strengthen, the key synapses. And if he can do that, he would be able to erase the subconscious memory of addiction.

“We’re talking about de-wiring things,” says Morikawa. “It’s kind of scary because it has the potential to be a mind controlling substance. Our goal, though, is to reverse the mind controlling aspects of addictive drugs.”

Critical social issues-related questions were addressed in a newly published study based on the world renowned Kaiser Permanente Cohort, which has revealed some of the most significant findings associating moderate consumption of wine, beer and spirits with coronary heart disease benefits over the last few decades.

As these and other research findings, such as the reported benefits of consuming "one alcoholic beverage per day" for cardiovascular health, consuming red wine for the resveratrol for longevity, etc. have been acknowledged by the research and public health communities, thousands of media stories have brought positive health messages to the public at large.

These developments have aroused concern among the public health and alcohol abuse prevention communities that such consumer knowledge, perhaps especially in persons at coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, might lead to inappropriate or excessive drinking. However, this research confirms in new, important ways how most people who choose to drink consume the beverages responsibly and maintain this habit throughout their adult lives. Further, this research indirectly reveals how the knowledge about the potential health benefits may reinforce such moderate drinking behavior rather than lead to irresponsible habits.

If you liked this article, you may want to check out my Health-be.com, article, New Research shows that Alcohol can Protect against Heart Disease.

So, taking in account that alcohol is good for memory, good for the cardiovascular system and possibly even good for longevity, it appears that alcohol may not be the Great Evil so many people people preached against? Or is it?

Do you believe that the dangers of alcohol outweigh any possible benefits? My readers and I would love to read all about your opinion on this matter, so please leave a comment down bellow.
Written By: Tom Retterbush

Source

Alcohol helps the brain remember: says new study (University of Texas at Austin)

Does knowledge about alcohol benefits lead to increased consumption? (Elisabeth Holmgren)