研究表明喝酒能提高記憶

Many of us have woken up the morning after the night before with a fuzzy recollection of our alcohol-induced antics. So it may surprise you to learn that drinking can actually help improve your memory. According to a new study by the University of Exeter, people who drink alcohol after studying information are better at remembering what they've learnt.

醉酒後的第二天早晨，很多人醒來時都會對酒精引起的可笑舉動有模糊記憶。因此當你得知喝酒真的能幫助提高記憶力時，你可能會十分吃驚。埃克塞特大學的一項新研究表示：在學習新知識之後喝酒更有助於記憶學到的知識。

The researchers asked 88 people to complete a word-learning task. The participants were then split in half, with one group being asked to drink as much alcohol as they wanted afterwards - the average was four units. The other group were told not to drink at all. The following day, all participants repeated the task, and those who'd drunk alcohol were found to perform better, remembering more of what they'd learned.

研究人員要求88人完成一項詞彙學習任務。受試者被分成兩組，其中一組在學完之後，被要求想喝多少酒就喝多少--平均爲4杯。另一組被告知不準喝酒。第二天，所有的受試者都重複任務，研究發現：喝酒的人表現得更好，記住的詞彙更多。

However the researchers stress that this small positive effect of drinking alcohol should not negate the well-established harmful consequences associated with alcohol, including negative effects on memory and mental and physical health. But the study, appears to suggest that drinking more in certain situations can aid memory.

然而，研究人員強調這一喝酒的小小積極益處不應該抵消與酒精相關的明確的有害影響，比如：對記憶和身心健康的消極影響。但是，這項研究似乎表明：在特定情況下喝酒能幫助提高記憶力。

"Our research not only showed that those who drank alcohol did better when repeating the word-learning task, but that this effect was stronger among those who drank more," said Professor Celia Morgan of the University of Exeter.

"我們的研究不僅表明那些喝酒的人在重複詞彙學習任務中的表現更好，還表明那些喝得多的人其表現更好，"埃克塞特大學的西莉亞·摩根教授說道。

The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the leading explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory. "The theory is that the hippocampus - the brain area really important in memory - switches to 'consolidating' memories, transferring from short into longer-term memory."

研究員尚未完全瞭解造成這一現象的原因，但主要的解釋就是酒精阻礙了新知識的學習，因此大腦有更多的資源可以將最近所學的信息存儲到長期記憶中。"該理論就是海馬效應--對記憶十分重要的大腦區域--切換到'鞏固'記憶，從短期記憶轉變爲長期記憶。"

This study wasn't the first of its kind, but previous research into the subject had only been carried out in scientific conditions. This was the first one where people drank in their own homes. As well as the word-learning task, the participants - 31 of whom were male, 57 of whom were female, all were aged 18 to 53 - undertook a second task involving looking at images on a screen.

該項研究並非首例，但先前只是在科學的情況下開展了有關該話題的研究。這是人們自己在家喝酒的首個研究。同樣，詞彙學習任務，受試者--31位男性，57位女性，歲數都在18至53歲--也進行了第二項任務：看大屏幕上的圖片。

This task was carried out after the drinkers had drunk alcohol and then again the next day, but there was no significant difference in memory between those who'd drunk and those who hadn't.

在這些人喝完酒之後，研究員纔開展了這項任務，但第二天並未發現喝酒和未喝酒的人在記憶上有明顯差別。